Maria Garcia still remembers the sound of her mother\u2019s guitar in their Dallas living room, the way songs could pull an entire family into the same emotional space.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s where her life in music began, long before she stood in front of a room full of middle schoolers as director of orchestra and mariachi at W.E. Greiner Exploratory Arts Academy.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy main instrument is the violin,\u201d she said. \u201cI play a little button accordion, and then I know a little bit about all the instruments just to be able to teach it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The violin, though, is home. She started on it as a child at Leila P. Cowart Elementary School after a short stint on trumpet. Her path solidified in middle school when she auditioned for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra\u2019s Young Strings program. Her world expanded when she was selected for Saturday lessons in a symphony player\u2019s home, performances in the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center lobby, and even concerts at private homes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what really kind of made the love of music a lot stronger for me,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cMy private teacher was amazing. She told me, \u2018You need to be a teacher. You\u2019re very good at what you\u2019re doing. You\u2019re a good performer, but I can see you being a teacher. You\u2019re good with people.\u2019\u201d
\u00a0<\/p>\n
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She laughs now when she mentions that, as a kid, she actually wanted to be a detective. Instead, she became something quieter but just as observant: a music educator who reads children through the way they hold a bow, the way they breathe before a phrase, and the way they walk onstage.<\/p>\n
At Greiner, where she has taught for 18 years, Garcia leads both the Yellow Jacket Orchestra and Mariachi Los \u00danicos, a name chosen because it was once the district\u2019s only middle school mariachi band.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur community is mostly Hispanic, and this is what they listen to at home, just like I did,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen they see that they\u2019re part of that and they can make that music themselves, they fall in love with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Students gravitate toward the mariachi music energy,\u00a0 lyrics, movement, and visual flair, she said.<\/p>\n
Orchestra often has to fight for their attention. Garcia is honest about that tension without resenting it. She works around it instead, pushing to bring pop pieces into orchestra concerts and giving students chances to sing with the ensemble.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just harder to get the same energy from them in the orchestra than it is for mariachi,\u201d she said. \u201cBut they understand that orchestra is important because that\u2019s where they get the foundation, how to note read, how to build their finger flexibility.\u201d<\/p>\n
She doesn\u2019t lead either group alone. Her co-director, Felipe Diaz, joined her a decade ago, bringing high school-level experience and a deep mariachi background.<\/p>\n
Together, they built programs that are noticed beyond the district.<\/p>\n
For orchestra, both varsity and junior varsity recently earned sweepstakes at UIL Concert and Sight-Reading contests. On the mariachi side, Mariachi los \u00danicos was named North Regional Middle School Champions through the Texas Association of Mariachi Educators and invited to Juan Seguin High School in Arlington to showcase between top high school ensembles.<\/p>\n
They have also traveled to Albuquerque, N.M., where they placed first place at the annual Mariachi Spectacular de Albuquerque.<\/p>\n
Those results have opened doors. When Greiner was selected as a Grammy-recognized school, the program received a donation of instruments and a visit from regional Mexican star, Cristian Nodal.<\/p>\n
Mariachi los \u00danicos also performed for Hillary Rodham Clinton on the campaign trail, at the State Fair of Texas, and at community events across the city.<\/p>\n
This academic year is already keeping them busy. In December, both the orchestra and mariachi will perform at Dallas Zoo Lights. During spring break, they plan to travel to Orlando, Fla., for the Disney Performing Arts Music Festival, where the orchestra will perform and mariachi students will work with a member of Mariachi Cobre at EPCOT.<\/p>\n
In the classroom, the payoff of the lessons are visibly steady \u2014 a shy sixth grader who can barely look up at the music stand in September, standing onstage by winter and owning a solo.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love to see when they come to us and they know nothing, and then by the end of three months they\u2019re already on stage performing on their own,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cWe\u2019re not just trying to set up musicians. We\u2019re trying to set up a productive citizen for our neighborhood, for our country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garcia is also continuing her legacy at Dallas ISD. Her son, a violinist in eighth grade at Greiner, came through her program and quickly rose to the top group.<\/p>\n
When Garcia thinks about what makes her proudest, she doesn\u2019t think about trophies or titles; she thinks about faces instead.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think to me it\u2019s leaving a mark on all the students\u2019 lives,\u201d she said. \u201cThat they remember us, and that they know they\u2019re always welcome back. We\u2019re always beaming with happiness and pride when we see them succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maria Garcia still remembers the sound of her mother\u2019s guitar in their Dallas living room, the way songs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[140691,102,104,140688,140687,140689,103,140690],"class_list":["post-448064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-campus-news","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-isd-news","tag-dallas-isd-news-post-page","tag-dallas-isd-stories","tag-dallas-news","tag-district-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}