David Dean Mendoza
Composer Performer Music Educator
B i o g r a p h y
David Dean Mendoza was born in El Paso Texas. He learned to play piano at age 7 and viola at age 10. At age 16, he began to compose music. While in high school, he performed not only in his high school orchestra, but local youth and university orchestras as well. He went on to study viola and composition at Florida State University earning his BM in composition (2003) studying under Ladislav Kubik and Mark Wingate. While at Florida State he also took advantage of learning Early Music with Pamela Andrews, Chinese Music with Haiqiong Deng, Korean Music with Andrew Killick, and Balinese Gamelan with Michael Bakan. Looking for a more avant-garde learning environment, he decided to study at Florida International University with Orlando Garcia. While there, he exclusively played music of the last fifty years and expanded his compositional skills earning his MM in 2008. He is currently based in downtown Fort Lauderdale, Florida. As an eclectic composer, he writes various types contemporary music. His works have been accepted for performance at the following adjudicated festivals: The 2005, 2008, 2009 Florida Electro-Acoustic STudent (FEASt) Festival, 2008 CHASM Festival, 2008 All Florida SCI Student Composer Symposium, 2008 SCI Student National Conference, 2009 Subtropics Experimental Music Festival, Season II of the 12 Nights Electronic Music and Art, 2009 Silence, Beauty, and Horror Festival, 2010 SCI Region IV Conference, 2010 SEAMUS National Conference, and the 2010 SCI National Conference. Internationally he has collaborated and premiered work in Buenos Aires Argentina at the famous Teatro Colón.
As a performer, he plays mostly his own music, but has been a member of new music ensembles both at Florida State University and at Florida International University. Now a multi-instrumentalist, he is comfortable on violin, viola, cello, viola da gamba, erhu, piano, or basically anything with strings and a bow. He has also had the opportunity to perform in the 2006 International Alliance for Women in Music Congress, 2006, 2007, and 2009 Subtropics Experimental Music Festival, local new music concerts, freelance work, and as a composer performer at various university conferences throughout the country.
David is also a deeply committed music educator who began teaching privately in 2004. In high demand, he will at any one time have thirty or more students in his studio of violin, viola, piano, and cello students who live in the greater Fort Lauderdale area. His students regularly play in recitals and in youth orchestras. In addition, he currently directs and conducts his own small string orchestra. He combines the various methods of Havas, Tuttle, Suzuki, Laoureux, Sevick, and Sassmannshaus to create a unique kind of teaching approach.
