Congratulations to Yasmine Duenes – 29th Annual Mariachi Extravaganza Grand Champion vocal winner. It’s been three months since the National Vocal Competition took place, and it was a pleasure chatting with Yasmine and talking about her journey in mariachi music and learning about all of the people who influenced her along the way. Here are snippets from the interview.
Cynthia: How and when did you get involved in mariachi music?
Yasmine: My older sister María was involved in mariachi music. I often attended her concerts and became interested. By the time I entered 6th grade, I started playing the violin in orchestra, since Orr Middle School didn’t have a mariachi program at the time. My orchestra teacher, Ms. Bedker, was awesome. She was super strict but very nice and she was a great teacher. I was fortunate to study with her as she helped me establish a good foundation. When I graduated from middle school, I followed María’s footsteps at Valley High School. They had a mariachi program, so I enrolled and began playing the violin with Mariachi Del Valle. María was a guitarist so we were in the same group at the same time. This made my parents really happy to see us both performing together on stage.
Cynthia: Who was your mariachi teacher in high school?
Noe Ramos was our mariachi director. He’s from South Texas and taught mariachi music for many years. He was one of the first mariachi music educators in Las Vegas. He’s originally from Corpus Christi and he brought many music educators from his home town to teach in Las Vegas back in 2010. He would often invite Christopher Figueroa to conduct master classes. Christopher is a former member of Mariachi Cobre and helped me develop my technique for mariachi music.
Cynthia: When did you start singing?
Yasmine: A man by the name of Francisco “Paco” Oropeza (now my brother-in-law) visited our afterschool rehearsal one day to recruit students to perform with a new mariachi group. He asked me to sing, and although I was quite hesitant at the age of 14, I sang “Cariño.” He was impressed so he invited me to join his group called Mariachi Los Aventureros. I performed with them for two years and then I was invited to play in another group called Mariachi Platinos my junior and senior year. Once I graduated from high school, I joined another group called Mariachi Herencia de Las Vegas.
I then registered at the College of Southern Nevada (CSN) to develop my voice. My professor – Dr. Mark Wherry – said, “you sing pretty strong but you need to find your head voice….it’s not there yet.” He helped me develop my voice and breathing technique and it made me a stronger singer. Everyone started noticing that my voice was getting better so they gave me more songs to sing. My confidence grew and this is when I finally started to really enjoy singing.
Cynthia: Is there anyone else who was influential in helping you develop your voice?
Yasmine: When I met Perry Chacón, I knew he was a voice instructor so I wanted to study with him. Perry is from San Diego and studied with Mark Fogelquist. He is now a Doctoral Candidate at the University of Las Vegas, Nevada. I started working with Perry in 2019 when I worked as an instructional aid at Freemont Middle School. He taught me vocal exercises and helped me develop my voice even further. Perry is a full-time teacher at Monaco Middle School and a part-time professor at CSN. I’ve learned a lot from him. My father also sings and plays the guitar. He also encouraged my sister and I to sing. Also, the late Albert Avila, who was a teacher at Fremont Middle School, was very encouraging throughout the years.
Cynthia: What instruments do you play?
Yasmine: I play some guitar and a little bit of the guitarrón. I also know a little bit of the vihuela.
Cynthia: What has been your involvement with the Mariachi Extravaganza?
Yasmine: I attended the Mariachi Extravaganza as a Mariachi Director when I worked at Fremont Middle School. I also competed in the Mariachi Extravaganza National Vocal Competition during COVID when it was held online in 2020. I won first place in the college/university category that year. In 2021, I competed with CSN’s Mariachi Plata in the National Group Competition. That year, we won first place. In 2022, I auditioned for the vocal competition but I didn’t make the finals. I competed that year with CSN and we won first place again. I wasn’t planning on competing in vocals this year but Perry encouraged me and reminded me that this was the last year I could be eligible to compete. So, I did.
Cynthia: What have been some of the challenges you’ve overcome?
Yasmine: I always get sick during auditions and competitions. That happened again this year but I pulled through for both the auditions and the competition. I had completely lost my voice on the Wednesday prior to the competition. I kept googling “how do I get my voice back in two days.” Perry said, “drink a lot of water and get plenty of rest.” I stayed in my hotel room Wednesday, Thursday and Friday when everyone was out. I got plenty of rest and ate a lot of warm soup and fortunately, I got my voice back.
Cynthia: How did you feel when you won?
Yasmine: I was really happy that we won first place in the group competition. This was my first time competing on a stage during the vocal competition. I was definitely not expecting to win Grand Champion. As the announcement of the winners took place on stage, I was just sitting back and enjoying watching everyone. They announced the first, second and third place winners of the college/university category and my name wasn’t called. One of our group members texted me a message that said, “It’s o.k. you didn’t make it. We still love you.”
When they called out my name as the Grand Champion, it felt pretty incredible especially after everything I had gone through in losing my voice the days prior.
Cynthia: How did you go about selecting your award-winning song?
Yasmine: I usually sing rancheras, but I wanted to do something different. I thought about “El Mercader” and asked Perry what he thought. He liked this selection, so I went with it.
Cynthia: What are you studying?
Yasmine: Music Education. I’ve been studying part-time. I’ve already started teaching as I’m working towards my degree. Here in Las Vegas, the school district allows you to do that. I’m enrolled in a couple of mariachi classes which is helping me keep my teaching license.
Cynthia: What are your future goals?
Yasmine: To become the best vocalist I can be. I want to continue taking voice lessons. I want to dedicate a lot more time to practicing my violin. I’d like to put myself out there. I need to find that confidence and carry it through.
Cynthia: Do you sing any other kind of music?
Yasmine: I like to sing some opera.
Cynthia: Who is your favorite mariachi cantante?
Yasmine: I really like Pedro Rey. This is José Hernandez’ older brother. He founded Mariachi Los Galleros and I like the way he phrases everything. I watched a lot of videos of him way back when.
Cynthia: Who is your favorite all-time artist?
Yasmine: Freddy Mercury from Queen.
Cynthia: Who is your favorite female mariachi artist?
Yasmine: My favorite female group is Mariachi Reyna de Los Angeles and my favorite female vocalist is Aida Cuevas.
Cynthia: What are your future plans?
Yasmine: I want to create one of the best mariachi programs in Las Vegas CCSD (Clark County School District). My goal is to make our school (Bailey Middle School) one of the top mariachi music programs in Las Vegas and to keep the mariachi music tradition alive and growing. I want to help Oscar Rivera and William Gutiérrez (also teachers here at Bailey) take mariachi music to the next level here in Las Vegas.
I would like to see the continuous growth of mariachi music programs across the U.S. and do all that we can to continue passing it along to the next generation.
Yasmine is the first student from the state of Nevada to win the Mariachi Extravaganza Grand Championship title in the National Vocal Competition. She received the honor of opening for the esteemed Mariachi Nuevo Tecalitlán at the Lila Cockrell Theatre and received a $5,000 scholarship made possible by KHS America Academic Alliance, H-E-B, Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Calvert, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar and Whataburger. She says the scholarship will definitely help pay for vocal lessons and courses at CSN and beyond.
Competition judges were made up of members of the esteemed Mariachi Nuevo Tecalitlán. Thanks to Fernando Martínez, musical director/violinist/vocalist; Gabriel Godínez, vocalist/violinist and Miguel Angel Briones vocalist/guitarist, for judging the competition and inspiring the next generation of young artists.
Yasmine will perform with Mariachi Plata at the Viva Mariachi Festival at the Performing Arts Center at Napa Valley College April 6-7 and for the Houston Mariachi Festival on August 24th.
Felicidades Yasmine, and to all of the people who had a positive influence in helping you grow as an artist along the way.
Make plans to join us in San Antonio for the Mariachi Extravaganza Summer Vocal Camp taking place June 24–28 at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts Carlos Alvarez Studio Theater. Registration will be opening soon at mariachimusic.com.
Mark your calendar for the 30th Annual Mariachi Extravaganza in San Antonio December 5-7, 2024. Stay connected with us on mariachimusic.com for updates!
