Mariachi Los Camperos presented by the Phyllis and Bob Cowan Performing Arts Series Thursday, May 03, 2018
7:30 PM - 9:30 PM

Join Midland College, the Phyllis and Bob Cowan Performing Arts Series and the Friends of the Series for a fun evening of mariachi music performed by the world-renowned Mariachi Los Camperos.

The two-tiime Grammy Award winning grroup originated in 1961 by Natividad “Nati” Cano. He has played a fundamental role in the development of mariachi music in the United States by training and mentoring new generations of mariachi musicians.  One of Cano's abiding aims has been to counter the perception of mariachi music as mere "cantina music" and to have his beloved musical tradition be appreciated as an art form of innate beauty and artistry.  Under his leadership, Mariachi Los Camperos became one of the best mariachi ensembles in the world.  

Cano has been a major supporter, organizer and participant in the mariachi festival "movement" that started in 1979 and now boasts several dozen festivals across the United States.  He is an adjunct faculty member in UCLA's department of Ethnomusicology.

In the late 1960s, Cano opened La Fonda de Los Camperos, a restaurant with a dinner-theatre concept that welcomed mariachi fans of all cultural and economic backgrounds.  La Fonda created a new model for mariachi performance venues that has been imitated throughout the Southwest.  

Mariachi Los Camperos accompanied Linda Ronstadt on her breakthrough mariachi recordings and the concerts that followed.  The group has performed at the White House for two presidents and at major venues such as Avery Fisher Hall at New York's Lincoln Center, the National Folk Festival, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, the Kennedy Center and at Guadalajara's Teatro Degollado.  Mariachi Los Camperos has been a repeated headliner at Mexico's premier mariachi event, the annual Encuentro de Mariachi in Guadalajara, which was recently featured in a nationally aired PBS program.