It’s become tradition that the final Learning Lunch of the school year features students performing music. On Tuesday that tradition was alive and well, as the Lincoln Public Schools student mariachi ensemble played for an audience that filled the boardroom at LPS District Office.

It’s the first year for Los Mariachis de la Ciudad Estrella, which translates to Star City Mariachi Ensemble. The ensemble includes students in grades seven through 12 from across the city.

“This musical opportunity has allowed our students to experience and learn the beautiful music of Mexico and to make a wonderful connection with our Hispanic community in Lincoln,” said LPS Music Supervisor Lance Nielsen, who offered a brief introduction of the ensemble and its director, Brett Noser from Lincoln High School.

The ensemble performed a handful of songs on Tuesday. Between songs, Noser and assistant director Amanda McCullough shared historical information about mariachi music and the instruments played by members of the LPS ensemble.

Josue Meza, a senior at Lincoln High, shared the personal significance for him to be playing in a mariachi ensemble. His mom is originally from Jalisco, Mexico, where mariachi music originated in the 1840s. He also has an uncle who is a director of a mariachi ensemble.

“I kind of have it in my blood already,” he said.

The ensemble played at various events throughout the city during the school year, including a Day of the Dead celebration at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the Martin Luther King Jr. Youth Rally. They also played at four different schools as part of a one-day tour on March 29. (You can still watch videos, see photographs and read quotes on a webpage dedicated to the tour.)

The ensemble will perform its final concert of the season on Monday, May 20, with the Lincoln Community Concert Band. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. at Kimball Recital Hall on the UNL campus.