Kareli Montoya, Artistic Director
Jimmy K. Cuéllar, Music Director

Two opportunities to watch live!
@THEMUSCO Online
Thu, Dec 17, 7 P.M. PT (6:30 Q&A)

Carpenter Center at Home
Sat, Dec 19, 7 P.M. (6:30 Q&A)
Visit carpenterarts.org

Celebrate the holidays at home with this vibrant evening of music and dance featuring two of L.A.’s most acclaimed performance ensembles: Ballet Folklórico de Los Ángeles and Mariachi Garibaldi de Jaime Cuéllar. Before the performance, join Artistic Director Kareli Montaya and Music Director Jimmy K. Cuéllar for a live Q&A about the performance and holiday traditions. 

In Mexico, Christmas is not just a single day, but a whole season of Christmas-re¬lated celebrations. Today, the Christmas traditions in Mexico are a blend of indige¬nous culture, Spanish heritage, and many other influences. On Nochebuena (Christmas Eve), it is tradition for Mexican families to attend midnight mass before returning home to a late-night feast that includes foods like bacalao, ham, turkey, tamales, and mole, with ponche to drink and lots of music! Gifts are not usually given at this time, but this is changing with increasing cultural influence from the USA. Santa Claus has started coming to Mexico! In this concert, we’ll go through some of the traditions that people in Mexico celebrate during Christmas time, but keep in mind that many of these customs and their celebration vary across region to region. Many of them are also changing with the influence of other cultures (most notably that of the United States).

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Ballet Folklórico de Los Ángeles (BFLA) catapulted to international fame when they danced at the 90th Annual Academy Awards in celebration of the Pixar movie, Coco, also performing at the D23 Expo, the Coco Premiere at the El Capitan Theater, and Disney Night on DWTS working alongside Natalia Lafourcade, Gael Garcia Bernal, and Miguel as they sang the award-winning Remember Me. BFLA is also part of the new Disney live production of Coco which debuted at the Hollywood Bowl in November 2019 and is streaming on Disney+.

Founded in 2011 by Kareli Montoya, BFLA has worked on stage with Grammy Award winners Lila Downs, Pepe Aguilar, Mariachi Divas and Mariachi Camperos. This versatile group performs both traditional and modern regional dances in world-class venues including the Dolby Theatre, the Greek Theater, and the Ford Amphitheater with as many as forty-eight dancers! Yet, they also appear in smaller halls with as few as two dancers. While accompanying prestigious groups like Mariachi Vargas and Mariachi Garibaldi de Jaime Cuéllar onstage, their precise movements and colorful costumes, designed by Kareli Montoya and her grandmother Teresa, leave audiences spellbound! Avid proponents of dance education, the group teaches folklorico dance for all ages at their own Academy for Performing Arts. 

Mariachi Garibaldi de Jaime Cuéllar, currently celebrating their 25th season, has captivated and delighted audiences at both intimate venues and major theaters throughout the United States, including the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre, Bakersfield Fox Theatre, and the Auditorium Theater in Chicago. Founded in 1994 by Jaime Cuéllar, the ensemble of 8-12 mariachi musicians is now led by his son, Jimmy K. Cuéllar, a three-time Grammy award winner in his own right.  Frequently collaborating with other artists such as Pedro Fernandez, Ana Barbara and Angela Aguilar, a 2017 production by the “mitú” network where they teamed with Ballet Folklórico de Los Ángeles to recreate “Tale as Old as Time” from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, went viral with over 15 million views! Most recently, Mariachi Garibaldi de Jaime Cuéllar were featured artists in Center Stage Opera’s 2019 production of Mozart’s Le Nozze de Figaro. Avid proponents of music education, the group teaches mariachi for all ages at their own Academy for Performing Arts.



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