In her first year at Hays County’s Chapa Middle School, then 11-year-old Alexandra Dorantes discovered the school lacked an orchestra program, offering only choir, band and mariachi. Encouraged by her grandmother, Dorantes joined the mariachi with her classical violin training and completely fell in love with Mexican music.
This April, vocal performance senior Dorantes released her second album, Inolvidable, meaning “unforgettable.” As a member of the choir and opera at the Butler School of Music, Dorantes currently holds voting membership with the Latin Recording Academy and said she plans to continue pursuing a solo career.
“I grew up listening to (mariachi) music,” Dorantes said. “My grandma was the one that gave me the push in that direction, and I’m so grateful that she did.”
Dorantes said she has been passionate about music since she was young, beginning to learn violin with her mother at five years old. She eventually began training classically and joined an orchestra, she said.
“My parents are Mexican, and they instilled in me the culture, the roots, the traditions of Mexico,” Dorantes said
Dorantes said that throughout middle and high school, she competed in vocal competitions and learned she loved singing. Dorantes released her first album, Ni Contigo, Ni Sin Tí, in 2022.
“I knew it was something that I would love to keep in memory and listen back to my growth as a mariachi musician, but also promote those songs that are so important in the tradition,” Dorantes said.
Dorantes said her latest album, Inolvidable, presents a tribute to her Mexican heritage and features both contemporary and traditional Mexican music.
“My album Inolvidable is what I hope to be — a bridge to connect generations,” Dorantes said. “A lot of the songs that I have within my album are older songs that I loved listening to, that my dad loved listening to.”
Dorantes said the University’s music program proved one of the biggest factors in her choice to attend UT.
“The first time that she performed she was about 10 years old,” Dorantes’ mother and producer Veronica Palacios said. “She also performed at Bass Recital Hall when she was a member of the Austin Youth Orchestra.”
Palacios said that Grammy-winning artist Alberto Jiménez Maeda collaborated with Dorantes on an arrangement for a national mariachi competition in Los Angeles. There, they began working together on the song she sang in the competition, “Es Mentira,” for her first album.
“We make a great team,” Maeda said originally in Spanish. “Her work is a family affair. Her mom and dad are deeply involved in this project; they’ve been her managers and producers. Together, we choose the songs, we choose how they’re going to sound.”
Maeda said that he has won and been nominated for Grammy awards in the past with the group Mariachi Divas, over a span of fifteen albums. He said he and Dorantes now work towards achieving the same for her.
“What Alexa is doing is singing about life and love, things that never go out of style,” Maeda said. “Her songs have beautiful messages.”
