Photo of Anna Maria Mendieta at the 2021 Latin Grammy Awards After Party. She is a woman with long brown hair in a white-and-gold gown with a matching cape. She is smiling and holding a sign celebrating the Latin Grammys.
Anna Maria Mendieta seen at the 2021 Latin Grammy Awards

Anna Maria Mendieta is a professional harpist from the United States. She is best known for pioneering the harp as a contemporary tango instrument. She is the founder, artistic director, and harpist for Tango del Cielo, an award-winning album and international touring show.

Career

Anna Maria is the principal harpist with the Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera and previously served as the principal harpist with the Women's Philharmonic for nearly 20 years. Ms. Mendieta was the featured instrumentalist for several seasons with Theater Flamenco of San Francisco. She has also performed with symphony orchestras in the U.S. and abroad, including the San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Ballet, Russian National Orchestra, and Russian State Ballet. Mendieta has received international recognition in 2007 as a pioneer and "exceptional soloist" (League of American Orchestras) for becoming the first harpist to play the first Argentine tango concerto ever written.

Innovations in tango

Mendieta has been recognized internationally as an innovator in the world of harp and has helped create a new genre for the instrument. Mendieta considered the harp a perfect vehicle for tango, and has since spent years advocating for the form. In the 1990s, Mendieta became fascinated with Argentine tango but quickly discovered that there was no music for the harp. Argentine tradition set apart "classical" instruments like the harp from the genre (the harp was used only for glissando effects in the 1930s). After many years of collecting tango music written for other instruments, she created her own arrangements and invented a new technique, one that allowed the harp to execute the difficult chromatic passages and percussive effects that characterize tango music. She was introduced to close friends and colleagues of the late tango composer Astor Piazzolla. Piazzolla had created Nuevo Tango (a sub-genre that combined tango with jazz and modern classical), so by working with Piazzolla's closest colleagues and artistic collaborators, Mendieta has created a new vision for tango and harp.

Mendieta studied tango (the dance) and quickly realized her passion for both art forms. Mendieta's "Harp-Tango" project has developed into a multimedia touring concert-show called "Tango Del Cielo." The show presents a fusion of tango and flamenco with a tribute to the silent films. Mendieta's Tango Del Cielo show was the featured show at the 2019 World Tango Festival in Victoria, Canada.

The Tango Del Cielo for Harp & Orchestra has won 9 international awards, including 4 Global Music Awards, and reached #2 on Billboard's Classical Crossover Charts.

Early life and education

Mendieta was born and raised in San Francisco, California, to a Spanish and Latin American family. Her parents played a number of musical instruments and encouraged their seven children to learn an instrument at a young age and to study music, art, and dance. She first played the harp at the age of seven, when she began studying the Salzedo method at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music under the tutelage of popular Israeli harpist Efrat Zaklad.

She continued her studies at San Francisco State University and at Stanford University with Marjorie Chauvel and graduated with honors from Notre Dame de Namur University with a bachelor's degree in music. She has also studied privately with the San Francisco Symphony’s principal harpist Doug Rioth and with world-renowned harpist Alice Chalifoux at the Salzedo Harp Colony in Camden, Maine.[1][2][3][4]

Awards and honors

Global Music Awards - Anna Maria Mendieta - Tango Del Cielo Album 2022 Bronze Medal for Best Music Video "Oblivion" (with filmmaker Cristian Pablo Ardito, Libres Del Mundo Productions) 2021 Silver Medalist for Best Album "Tango Del Cielo" 2021 Silver Medal - Best Instrumentalist 2021 Silver Medal - Editing & Mixing "Tango Del Cielo" Album

Clouzine International Music Awards 2022 - Best Music Video "Oblivion" (with filmmaker Cristian Pablo Ardito, Libres Del Mundo Productions) 2020 Best Classical Crossover Album - "Tango Del Cielo" Album 2020 Best Music Video "Libertango" (Libres Del Mundo Productions)

LIT International Talent Awards 2021 Most Artistic Music Video "Oblivion" 2021 Best Show "Tango Del Cielo"

2013 American Harp Society Grant Commission recipient for a concerto to be composed for her.

Mendieta is the only harpist to have twice received the "Matz Memorial Award" from Lyon & Healy Harp Company for "Outstanding Achievement".

Notable performances

Played for:

Celebrity Concert Performances:

Discography

Release date Album Label
October 27, 1993Enchanted Christmas – Harp & New Chamber EnsembleSugo Records
November 19, 1996Broadway Center StageSugo Records
October 10, 1998An Acoustic ChristmasSugo Records
November 9, 1999Christmas Angels: A Sugo Holiday Collection (by various artists)Sugo Records
August 21, 2020Tango Del CieloAnna Maria Mendieta (self-published)

Also featured on: "Around the World" National Geographic Music Series – "Serenity, Songs of Peace and Enlightenment" (National Geographic & Sugo Music Label) Musae - Women's Ensemble "Songs of the Southwest" Pacific Boy Choir - "O Holy Night" (2012) Rejoice! - The Young Women's Chorus of San Francisco (2016) Titanes Del Trombones - Doug Beavers, Trombone (2018 Grammy Winner)

References

  1. ↑ "Anna Maria Mendieta". CaliforniaSoundCollective.org. Retrieved March 6, 2021.
  2. ↑ Romer, Megan (February 1, 2021). "Classical Harpist Treads New Paths Playing Tango". InternationalMusician.org. Retrieved March 5, 2021.
  3. ↑ "Harpist's tango follows playing for the Pope". Vallejo Times Herald. California. October 12, 2012. Retrieved March 4, 2021.
  4. ↑ Hicks, Rhonda L. (September 27, 2012). "Listening: Featured Musician Anna Maria Mendieta". Benicia magazine. California. Retrieved March 4, 2021.
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