SI-YO ARTIST™
Alejandro Mendoza
https://www.msmnyc.edu/faculty/alejandro-mendoza-2-2/
Si-Yo Stories Interview
Violinist ALEJANDRO MENDOZA has toured North America, South America and Asia performing both as a recitalist and soloist with orchestras. He has been greeted with standing ovations from audiences around the world and has received critical acclaim from the press as well. The New York Press has called him “an outstanding soloist” and The Ann Arbor (MI) News wrote, “Alejandro Mendoza’s playing of the violin … is enough to start the bravos pouring from the gallery”. In South America, the Venezuelan media raved about his performances with such superlatives as “sweetest tone” and “impeccable technique.” More recently, the El Paso Herald Post wrote Alejandro Mendoza “digs into a piece with maximum effect,” “giving off light and airy insights and a downright robust and racy ending.” “Mendoza maneuvered his violin through all the difficult plucks, chips and rolls with quick, abrupt movements and a soulful cry at the end.” Alejandro Mendoza has also been heard in Japan where his sold out concerts in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya led to return engagements to many Japanese cities. In the USA, Mr. Mendoza has recorded a compact disc with pianist Kiyoshi Tamagawa. This recording includes sonatas by César Franck and Saint-Saëns and is available under the Jericho Label in select stores throughout New York and other principal cities in the U.S. and abroad.
Mr. Mendoza has distinguished himself not only as a performer but also as an educator, both in the studio and on the stage in master classes. He keeps a large number of students regularly in New York and New Jersey, many of whom have won competitions and appeared in recital and as soloists with orchestra. His gifted young pupils have been featured in many music centers around the world, including Steinway Hall and Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall in New York City, Grand Hall in the Seoul Art and Music Centre in Korea, John Harms Center in New Jersey, Cloudcroft Music Festival in New Mexico and the Aspen Music Festival, to name a few. They have also been featured in broadcasts in WQXR (New York), National Public Radio and WCLV (Cleveland).
Mr. Mendoza has been able to blend the teachings and the traditions of such masters and educators as Dorothy DeLay, Aaron Rosand, and David Cerone, all of whom he studied with personally. He was also exposed to the principles of teaching and playing of the late Ivan Galamian while attending the Meadowmount School of Music. In addition, in 1989, Mr. Mendoza became a certified Suzuki violin teacher in all the levels of the method from beginning to advanced level. His teaching career began while still a student at The Juilliard School when he was asked by Dorothy DeLay to assist her in teaching violin technique to her students both at the Aspen Music Festival and at The Juilliard School. Since then, he has held teaching positions at The Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, The School for Strings, Southwestern University of Texas, The Aspen Music Festival and Purchase College of the State University of New York. Mr. Mendoza currently teaches at The Manhattan School of Music Precollege Division and the Amati Conservatory in Tenafly, New Jersey, a music school he founded in 1997 for dedicated young music students.
In addition, Mr. Mendoza frequently conducts master classes at conservatories and universities while touring as a soloist. His master classes have been enthusiastically received in China, Japan, Chile, Venezuela, Korea, and many cities in the United States of America. He is also frequently asked to adjudicate violin competitions and auditions around the country and abroad.
Manhattan School of Music Precollege faculty since 1989.