OSHKOSH (WLUK) — Choir students at Vel Phillips Middle School in Oshkosh got a taste of San Jose, California, music as members of Mariachi San Jose visited the school to share their sound and culture.
Mariachi San Jose members workshopped with students on the music style. The goal was to give students who are Mexican or Hispanic a connection to a part of their culture that has been absent from the learning curriculum in the past.
(WLUK)
“I wanted to insert something as part of my curriculum so that they could start to be seen,” said Dr. Phong Nguyen, the school’s choir director.
Nguyen said students quickly recognized the music from their own lives.
“When started several, a couple of these songs, there were kids just raising their hands and saying we’ve seen this at home, we’ve seen this on our birthdays or my parents sing this all the time and it just puts a smile on their face,” Nguyen said.
Nguyen also said it’s important to expose students to different musical cultures because the world is diverse and music can be a gateway to that process.