College of the Sequoias’ Cultural Historical Awareness Program (CHAP) is proud to host a Mariachi-Pop-Opera night, Tuesday, August 29, 7pm. in the Visalia campus Theater. Admission and parking are free; donations to CHAP are welcome.
Headliners are Jenny Ponce and Rosalinda Verde with the Crawdads and Mariachi Jalisciense. Also performing will be guest performer Jacob Barber, CEO/Founder of Lore Entertainment.
This concert kicks off the Fall CHAP season with upcoming events with poet and author Gary Soto, discussing his new book “Meatballs for the People: Proverbs to Chew On.” Ohio University Professor Chester Pach will be speaking in October; Pach’s expertise is in television coverage of international issues and the intersections between politics, popular culture, and international history.
Jenny (Yeine) Ponce is a music teacher working with the Elementary Music Team for Visalia Unified School District. An alumnus of COS, she is proud to return to the stage where her music career began. As a music student at COS, she earned her Associate’s Degree in Vocal Performance before transferring to Fresno State where she pursued a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education. Jenny has performed in many musicals, cabarets, concerts, operas, and most recently played the lead role in “El Bracero” a mariachi opera production by the Visalia Opera Company. She has been awarded Best Performance by a Supporting Actress by the Visalia Players as well as first place in the National Association of Teachers of Singing competition for musical theater.
Rosalinda Verde graduated from Point Loma Nazarene University in 2007. While attending the university, she had the opportunity to sing with the San Diego Opera chorus. After moving back from San Diego in 2009, she spent her creative energy building the Visalia Opera Company. To date, VOC has performed all over the county and has produced several fully orchestrated operas. Rosalinda received a grant in 2015 to produce a “mariachi opera”. She wrote a story about the Mexican/American Bracero program and with help from her team, created a production that is still being toured in Southern California. Rosalinda enjoyed two years of writing original scripts and producing theatre productions for adults with developmental disabilities, at the Creative Center in Visalia. She sings regularly with the Crawdads band at Crawdaddys and is a contract singer for other bands in the area. Recently she had the opportunity to open for Los Lobos with the band August.