Photo: Justin Lee
Violist with the Arianna String Quartet, and former member of the Harrington String Quartet.
Lauded for her “eloquent phrasing” and “lush, sonorous and assertive tone,” Joanna Mendoza has been one of America’s most sought-after chamber music violists and teachers for the past twenty years. Performing throughout North America, South America, Europe, and South Africa, she has collaborated with artists such as Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, Robert Levin, David Shifrin, Alex Klein, Anton Nel, along with members of the Cleveland, Vermeer, Miami, Cavani, and Pro Arte Quartets.
In 2008, Ms. Mendoza joined the Arianna String Quartet and the music faculty of the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Their work as performers, recording artists, and teachers takes them across the U.S. and abroad, from the Fort Worth Chamber Music Society in Texas to Cape Town Concert Series in South Africa and Sala Cecilia Meireles in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The ASQ can be heard on National Public Radio’s Performance Today, and on Live from Music Mountain, broadcast to 125 stations in the U.S. and to 35 countries. The Arianna Quartet’s recent recordings of the two Janacek Quartets, and the Early and Middle Beethoven Quartets, all released on Centaur Records, received critical acclaim. Highly sought-after teachers, the ASQ is regularly invited to colleges and conservatories worldwide including Peabody, Oberlin, University of Houston, and Northwestern, and in South Africa at Stellenbosch and University of Pretoria.
Prior to joining the Arianna Quartet, Ms. Mendoza was a ten-year member of the Harrington String Quartet who was featured in a PBS documentary, A Sound Collaboration: The Harrington String Quartet, and recorded a Grammy-nominated album of the works of Daniel McCarthy. She has also premiered works of Suzanne Farrin, John Novacek, and Kenji Bunch; Mr. Bunch’s “String Circle” was commissioned for her in 2004.
Individually and as a quartet member, Ms. Mendoza has performed and taught at festivals in and outside the U.S. including Interlochen Arts Camp, Killington, Mammoth Lakes, Midwest Young Artists, and Bellingham Music Festivals, Madeline Island Chamber Music, at RenMin University in Beijing, China, and Jaragua do Sul, Barra Mansa, and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.
Ms. Mendoza received her training at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the Juilliard School.
