PROGRAM NOTES Chiapanecas is a Mexican group folk dance in _ time for women and girls in which the audience claps its hands in time to the music. This dancing can be easily imagined while listening to the Rafael Mendez trumpet solo version. Rafael Méndez was born in Jiquilpan, Mexico. His musical training began when he was five, when his father needed a trumpet player for the orchestra comprised of family members. The Méndez orchestra was a popular performing group and appeared regularly at festivals and community gatherings. Rafael loved the trumpet and actually practiced more that his father allowed. At age twenty, Méndez moved to the United States, working in steel mills in Gary, Indiana. Unhappy that he could not play his trumpet as much as he desired, Méndez moved to Flint, Michigan, where he began working at the Buick Company plant and playing in the company band. After winning a last minute audition for the Capitol Theatre orchestra, Méndez moved to Detroit. . In 1939, Méndez joined the MGM orchestra, where he played on several movie soundtracks and performed regular live concerts. After hearing an MGM concert featuring Méndez, a Decca records representative offered him a twelve record contract. He was also contracted to arrange, compose, and author trumpet method books by the Carl Fischer company. Méndez began to appear more frequently as a soloist with orchestras away for the movie studio. It was at this time that Méndez began his full-time career as a trumpet soloist. He appeared with symphony orchestras, college ensembles, concert bands and big bands across the United States and Europe. Soon he was performing more than one hundred concerts per year. Méndez died, at home, on September 15, 1981.