Teaching Professor, Music | Mariachi Ensemble Director
- MAEd, National University, Cross-Cultural Teaching
- BM, San Diego State University, Music Education
Serafin Paredes earned his B.M. from San Diego State University in Music Education in 1998. After graduating from SDSU, he attended National University, where he earned his Master’s in Education in Cross-Cultural Teaching and his B-CLAD Teaching Credential. Paredes has been a music educator in the San Diego Unified School District since 1998. He then started his teaching career teaching band, orchestra, and guitar at an elementary school. Aside from being an elementary music teacher, he also started teaching string instruments at La Jolla Music Society Community Music Center, where he has been the director for the past eighteen years.
In 2005, he began teaching at San Diego High School, School of Media Visual and Performing Arts, where he taught marching band, concert band, orchestra, mariachi, and guitar ensemble. Currently, he is working at developing the music program at Logan Memorial Educational Campus. As of 2012, Serafin Paredes has been the mariachi director at the University of San Diego.
In addition to teaching with the SDUSD and USD, Serafin Paredes has also been involved in many other projects as a Music Educator. In 2002, he founded Mariachi Juvenil De San Diego focusing on encouraging and supporting students to finish high school and continue with a higher education. To help them achieve a higher education, the organization has been granting scholarships to members that have been part of the organization for at least two years. Members of Mariachi Juvenil de San Diego have attended universities such as University of San Francisco, Stanford University, University of San Diego, and George Mason University.
Throughout the years, Mariachi Juvenil de San Diego has been granted the opportunity to share their music around the world. In 2018, the group had the privilege to travel to Japan and perform around Nagoya, Osaka, Kyoto, and Tokyo, alongside the Greater San Diego Chamber Orchestra; violinist Sergio Caratachea, trumpeter Javier Rodriguez, and guitarist Yoshi Oshima. Then in 2019, they had the opportunity to be a part of the Hollo and Martta Folklore Festival in Finland and perform around some of their cities, Hollola, Lathi, Messilla, Heinola and Helsinki.
Around 2004, Serafin Paredes created a mariachi conference and workshops in San Diego. It began with just his mariachi students from San Diego High School. This conference has developed over the years into a learning opportunity where mariachi students from all across San Diego and the United States may connect and learn from some of the top mariachi experts in the world. For the past 10 years, the Mariachi Conference and Workshop have been held at the University of San Diego under the direction of Serafin Paredes.