Art Gerst

I was - born and raised in Los Angeles, California. I am of Russian-Jewish descent (all of my grandparents were born in Russia). My mother developed an interest in Mariachi music through friendships with Mexican neighbors. She brought home recordings of Mariachi Vargas and Mariachi Mexico, which I grew to love.
 
I became - enchanted with "la arpa veracruzana" while visiting Ensenada, Mexico, B.C. one summer weekend after my first year of college. While walking past a music store, I heard the music of a great "jarocho" ensemble, "Conjunto Medellin", playing inside. I purchased the album and played it incessantly until I had memorized many of the harp melodies. Three years later, my parents purchased a harp for me while visiting Mexico City. I taught myself how to tune and play "La Bamba" on that instrument, which I later realized was merely a child's toy with twelve strings.
 
While at graduate school at UCLA, I joined the mariachi class in the Ethnomusicology department, where I was urged to learn to play a Veracruz harp that the program had purchased. I taught myself to play every song from every recording that I had or could borrow. At first, I copied and then began to develop my own interpretations. Soon, I was performing with other students in our own "conjunto".
 
I joined - "Conjunto Alvarado", a local veracruz ensemble in 1966 and found myself working with that group at La Fonda, home of Mariachi Los Camperos, when the restaurant was first opened in 1967-68. Five years later, I was invited to play with Los Camperos and worked with them for sixteen years. I came to know Jose and Jesus Hernandez when they joined Los Camperos in the late 1970's.  I became a member of Mariachi Sol de Mexico in 1993. After a two-year break, I rejoined the mariachi in 2000. My association with Mariachi Sol de Mexico has been a great blessing in my life, especially the close bonds that I have established with Jose and the other musicians. I am especially proud of having the opportunity to be a part of the leading edge of musical innovation and evolution of mariachi music brought about
by Jose Hernandez' leadership.