Violinist ALEJANDRO MENDOZA has toured North America, South America, and Asia performing both as a soloist with orchestras and in recitals. He has been greeted with standing ovations from audiences around the world and has received steadfast critical acclaim from the media. The Press in New York recognized him as “an outstanding soloist” and the ANN ARBOR NEWS wrote, “Alejandro Mendoza’s playing of the violin ... is enough to start the bravos pouring from the gallery”. His Solo recitals in Manila and Quezon City in the Philippines were praised as “world-class” performances by the Manila Bulletin. 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”. In Japan Mr. Mendoza’s sold out concerts in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya led to return engagements to many Japanese cities. In South Korea The International Times raved about one of his concerts as an “immaculate and splendid performance” and the Busan Daily News wrote “The artist vividly brought out the musical colors and images that the composer embedded into the notes such as cheerfulness, purity, beauty, freshness and brightness, romanticism, melancholy, sorrow, and grief.” In his first tour of China in 2004, Mr. Mendoza’s packed concerts in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou were filmed for Chinese Television.

 

Alejandro Mendoza is also internationally recognized as a violin professor. He currently teaches at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City, Columbia University, and gives Master Classes in the USA and abroad. He is frequently asked to adjudicate violin competitions in several countries. His teaching career began while still a student at the Juilliard School, when he was chosen by celebrated violin pedagogue Dorothy DeLay to work with her as a teaching teacher associate at Juilliard and as a faculty member at the Aspen Music Festival. Mr. Mendoza was also trained in the great teaching tradition of the late Ivan Galamian and spent summers at the Meadowmount School of Music. In 1997 Mr. Mendoza founded the Amati Conservatory in New Jersey; a music school for dedicated young music students. Later, in the year 2000 he founded the Amati Music Festival in New York State, a summer music school that draws students from many countries who travel to study with distinguished music pedagogues in the beautiful setting of the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York. 

 

Born onto a family of professional musicians Alejandro Mendoza learned music at an early age. His first instrument was the recorder and his first music teacher was his father, the distinguished Chilean pianist Galvarino Mendoza. It was his father who discovered that young Alejandro had perfect pitch at the tender age of five years old. His music theory, solfège, and choir teacher was his mother Eliana Piñeiro who taught him singing, piano, and to read music, before he even learned the alphabet. Alejandro Mendoza’s first performances were at the age of six years old. After having performed extensively on alto, tenor, and soprano baroque recorders, at the age of seven he was asked by his parents if there was any other instrument that he would love to play. Without hesitation his response was: "the violin", as he was mesmerized by its sound.