Known for her “luxe, sound and assertive tone” (NY Stringer Magazine) and “Eloquent Frased” (New York Concert Review), the violist Joanna Mendoza performed throughout North America, South America, Europe and South Africa and ministered master classes in Beijing, China. Summer festival appearances include the Interlochen Arts Camp, the Madeline Island Music Camp, the Killington Music Festival, the Mammoth Lakes Chamber Music Festival and the Bellingham Festival of Music.
Joanna Mendoza is a violist for the Arianna string quartet and associate professor of viola at the University of Missouri – St. Louis. His national and international performances were praised for his “emotional commitment and fluent virtuosity” (Pretoria News) and “Tonal heat, fastidious balance… expressive vitality” (Chicago Tribune). The Arianna quartet can be heard at the “Performance Today” of the National Public Radio and “Live from Music Mountain”, which broadcasts to 125 stations in the US and to 35 countries. Current projects include a contract for recording several long-term albums with Centaur Records and a South Africa tour in August 2013.
Before joining the Arianna Quartet, Ms. Mendoza played with the Harrington String Quartet for 10 years. During that time, they debuted “String Circle”, a quintet of violas by composer/violist Kenji Bunch, commissioned and written for Mrs. Mendoza. The Harrington Quartet was featured in a PBS television documentary, “A Sound Collaboration-The Harrington String Quartet,” and recorded Daniel McCarthy’s full string quartets on the Albany Record label.
Mrs. Mendoza graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she studied with members of the Pro Arte Quartet and the Juilliard School, where she studied with William Lincer and the Juilliard Quartet. She plays a viola made by Christophe Landon in 1991.