Gompers teacher help starts mariachi program for junior high students at D. 86

Starting a mariachi program at a junior high school is a bold move for a music educator who knows little about mariachi.

But Christine Adelmann, who is white and doesn’t speak Spanish, thought the program would bring a “culturally relevant musical activity” to Gompers Junior High School.

Adelmann expressed those thoughts when she interviewed for the position of band director at Gompers several years ago. A news release from District 86 said Gompers’ student body is 97% minority and 100% of them quality for the United States Department of Agriculture National School Breakfast and Lunch program, the release said.

Still, it’s not just Spanish-speaking students who joined the band, especially after Adelmann and her colleague Rachael Tatar received approval to offer the mariachi program virtually to all junior high school students at District 86 for the 2021-2021 school year.

“It runs the gamut,” Adelmann said. “We’ve had African American students, a few white students and a couple of families of Latino students that do not speak Spanish at home. We made sure that students know this is not only for students who speak Spanish. It’s for whoever wants to try it.”

Most recently, Yamaha recognized Adelmann as an honoree of the Inaugural 40 Under 40 Music Education Program. Don Stinson, director of bands at Joliet Central High School, also received the award.

Before launching the program Adelmann, a trumpet player, teamed up with Tatar, another music educator at District 86 and a violin player, to learn more about mariachi. They contacted an organization that hosts a national mariachi conference and attended a satellite conference in Elgin, Adelmann said.

“And we learned every little thing we could possibly learn about all these different mariachi instruments, which was so fun and such an amazing experience,” Adelmann said.

Adelmann said she and Tatar launched the mariachi program at Gompers in 2019, letting the students know the program was a learning experience for her and Tatar, too.

In fact, Adelmann said she and Tatar knew some of the students already played in mariachi bands with their own families and that they had family members who played better than she and Tatar did.

So they encouraged the students to share from their own qualities experiences at school. The Spanish-speaking students assist the class (and the teachers) with learning the lyrics, Adelmann said.

“They get a kick out of us trying to speak Spanish, making sure we are pronouncing everything correctly,” Adelmann said. “They help us teach the other non-Spanish speaking students.”

The amount of participating students has fluctuated throughout the pandemic but is currently at 56, Adelmann said. Members of the mariachi ensemble are students in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades at Gompers, Hufford, and Washington Junior High Schools, according to Sandy Zalewski, director of communications and development at District 86.

The numbers were closer to 100 when students initially filled out an interest form, Adelmann said. She’s hoping attendance will increase once students return to in-person learning. It’s difficult teaching students how to move their fingers when teaching through a screen, she said.

But meeting on Zoom, for now, is still better than waiting and having to start from “square one,” Adelmann said.

“They’re getting to learn some of the Spanish lyrics and basic guitar techniques and skills,” Adelmann said.

Adelmann highlighted two important guitars in a mariachi ensemble. One is a vihuela, which is small and has five strings. The other is a guitar that resembles an upright bass, she said.

“It’s very large and you hold it with a big strap around your body,” Adelmann said. “It’s hard to play. You’ve got to make sure you got a kid who can handle holding it and plucking the strings. It takes a kid with a strong hand to be able to play it.”

The mariachi ensemble hosted just one concert before the shutdown, too, which was well-received, Adelmann said. She said Tatar is “an amazing teacher” and that the mariachi band has “been a lot of fun for us.”

Adelmann said her own children “run around the house singing the songs” when she’s practicing at home.

“It’s a beautiful type of music,” Adelmann said. “I’ve really fallen in love with it.”