Press Release

Contact: Ginny Morgan (510) 499-2222  |  Email: operachipublicity@yahoo.com

Written by SINGER/PROFESSOR OF VOICE, AND creator of the “Operachi” style, a crossover style between classical and Mariachi training.

STOCKTON, CA. November 22, 2024. Operachi songstress Dr. Juanita Ulloa announces the release of her book, The Mariachi Voice, published by Oxford University Press.

The Mariachi Voice is the first book of its kind. The book address vocal specifics of mariachi, a folk tradition immediately recognizable to the world through its powerful, expressive singers holding big sombreros. Mariachi singing is part of a fast-growing Hispanic field of 41 million native Spanish speakers in the US alone. The Mariachi Voice offers an informative and practical resource for all educational program directors, voice professors, historians, singers, and students of Mariachi who want to delve into the fascinating, yet often overlooked world of Mariachi song.

Artist interviews are included with award winning mariachi voice artists, including Linda Ronstadt and two grandchildren of Jorge Negrete who are singers themselves. Beginners as well as vocal experts can now access the similarities and differences between classical and Mariachi voice training and singing styles. Useful and extensive classroom-tested lesson plans are provided for mariachi voice pedagogy and history specific to The Mariachi Voice and Ulloa especially champions how to train female mariachi singers.

Program instructors can inform themselves on safe vocal production within the mariachi aesthetic along with graded song lists of standard repertoire along with 20 songs at various vocal levels. The author also presents a pronunciation chapter for singers in Mexican Spanish, including translations and the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) for Mariachi songs, with voice exercises drawn directly from rancheras. Other topics include Mexican costumes, stage make-up, and how to use a microphone.

THE MARIACHI VOICE (ISBN-10-0190846240, ISBN-13-978-0190846244) hardback is $99.00 and paperback is $34.95 (347pages). An electronic version of the book will soon be made available.

Amazon at https://amazon.com/Mariachi-Voice-Juanita-Ulloa/dp/0190846232 or from

Oxford University Press at https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-mariachi-voice-9780190846237?q=ULLOA&lang=en&cc=us.

The Operachi songstress has been reviewed alongside Santana as “an artist in a niche of her own” by Hispanic Magazine.

Dr. Juanita Ulloa is an Operachi songstress, Professor of Voice, ADDY Award-Winning voice-over actress, scholar, author, pianist and songwriter. She has offered solo concerts in Spain, Latin America, and the United States for over three decades. Juanita Ulloa highlights the beauty, diversity, and power of Mexican and Latin American vocal traditions, of which she has unparalleled knowledge. She champions songs and lyrics by women and features this message through national and international concerts. She earned the title of Musical Ambassador representing Mexico at Mexican Consulate events. She has appeared as a soloist at international Olympic and major stadiums, arts centers, festivals, adjudication for competitions, concerts, master classes and Latin Pops symphonies.

Dr. Ulloa is a six-time vocal and songwriting winner of Festival de la canciόn latinamericana, has 7 CDs of award-winning mariachi and Latin American songs and has won classical National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) competitions in Colorado and Wyoming. In 2020, she introduced mariachi singing as a commercial vocal category at two chapters for the NATS in Northern California and Cal-Western Regional NATS. She has inspired many students to compete and win at local and regional levels in NATS, as National Champions of Mariachi Extravaganza, American Idol, and the White House. As a scholar, she has presented on mariachi singers at national NATS conferences since 2010. Dr. Ulloa has served on the Grammy board and is currently on the Advisory Board and Diversity Committee for the San Francisco Chapter of NATS. Ms. Ulloa continues her own longtime vocal training with Jane Randolph, with past work on zarzuela in Madrid with Ana Maria de Iriarte and Spanish art song work in France with Dalton Baldwin.

Raised in Mexico City, Panama, and Spain, she calls Mexico home, with an alternate base in California. Dr. Ulloa has two award-winning mariachi/bolero recordings with Mujeres & Mariachi and Canta mi son! mariachi for families. Canta conmigo is a separate five-CD series dedicated to bilingual topics for children (some with matching songbooks) available at Spotify https://open.spotify.com/artist/5cMzzdABemSUXCOAKDKUoR and CDBaby.com. Her discs have won regional Parent’s Council, Disney, NAPPA, and Parent’s Choice awards. She edited and published 3 volumes of Mexican art songs and ranchers by nationalist Antonio Gomezanda as sheet music, all available at Classical Vocal Reprints at www.classicalvocalrep.com. Dr. Ulloa is the first to publish on The Mariachi Voice in the popular book series So You Want to Sing World Music: A Guide for Performers in 2019, sponsored by the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), available at https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538112281/So-You-Want-to-Sing-World-Music-A-Guide-for-Performers.

Dr. Ulloa holds music degrees from Yale University and UC Berkeley and a Doctorate in Vocal Performance and Hispanic Studies from the University of Northern Colorado. She is certified in the three levels of Somatic Voicework for commercial singing, specializing in Mexican and Latin American songs, and is a court-certified Spanish linguist. The songstress has adjudicated voice and mariachi at national festivals and has served on music faculties at the University of Texas at El Paso, Texas State University, Northwest Vista College, and Austin Community College, and piano accompaniment at the University of Texas in San Antonio. Dr. Ulloa is a Professor of Voice at Laney Community College and San Joaquin Delta Community College in Northern California and maintains a vibrant national private voice studio (in person/online) while touring, offering master classes, concerts, and workshops.

Sign up at www.juanitamusic.com; Operachipublicity@gmail.com.

Her book, The Mariachi Voice, published by Oxford University Press, is now available through Oxford University Press, Amazon, and other locations where quality books are sold.

Ginny Morgan, Publicist for Dr. Juanita Ulloa

Email: operachipublicity@yahoo.com

Telephone: (510) 499-2222

www.juanitamusic.com

FB: Ulloa.juanita.37