KAREN WIESE hero arts

“Musical theater combines the intellectual, emotional and the physical together into an art form, and that is an amazing expression of humanity,” Wiese says. “It’s prevention on a communitywide and individual level. Wellness and healing are what theatre can bring.”

After 38 years of “schlepping” things from one theatre to another, AET found its home at Park Place. “We came to Park Place out of our passion to persevere during the pandemic and we’re staying out of love for the community that embraced us during these difficult times,” Wiese explains.

Now as AET faces its 40th anniversary, it celebrates its service to over 25,000 people annually through Broadway musical theatre productions and education. Next season, the company will present 11 productions, and a capital campaign continues for renovations that turn its home in a former Park Place retail space into a state-of-the-art theater.

“The AET team is exceptional,” Wiese said. “I’m thrilled to be here and have a grateful heart.”

Do you know an Arts Hero? Someone who works tirelessly to strengthen, improve and enhance the arts in our community?

Nominate him or her at onmediaaz.com

Mariachi Magic

If you diagrammed the chapters of John Contreras’ lifelong commitment to mariachi music, you would only need circles — some concentric, many overlapping, all full.

The mariachi instruction and performances he oversees and the cultural awareness he nurtures through music is what he experienced growing up in Tucson.

“Everything that I’m doing is a modification based on what I did as a youth mariachi musician,” Contreras says.

As the 20-year Director of Mariachi Aztlán de Pueblo High School, he leads one of the nation’s premier youth groups performing the music that has origins in Guadalajara. Contreras, who was selected in 2022 for the Southwest Folklife Alliance Master-Apprentice Artist Program, also sits on the board of directors of the Tucson International Mariachi Conference.

Contreras has played guitar since he was 3. His father, a self-taught musician, was his first instructor. By age 6, he was singing and playing well enough to bring his grandmother to tears.

After school music programs and the tutelage of Simon Carranza and his sons, founders of the Mariachi Nuevo de Tucson youth group, propelled Contreras to a career of performance, instruction and eventually a job offer from Richard Carranza, a son of Simon and founder of the award-winning Mariachi Aztlán.