Praised in New York Stringer Magazine for her “lush, sonorous and assertive tone,” Joanna Mendoza is the newly appointed violist of the Arianna String Quartet and Associate Professor of Viola at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.  Ms. Mendoza performs regularly with Quartet-à-tête, a piano quartet of which she is a founding member. She recently served on the faculty at the University of Oklahoma and from 1997-2007 performed with the Harrington String Quartet, in residence at West Texas A&M University. With the quartet, Ms. Mendoza performed throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe and collaborated with acclaimed artists such as Robert Levin, James Dunham, William Preucil, David Shifrin, Pepe Romero and members of the Cavani and Miro Quartets. The quartet premiered commissions by Kenji Bunch ("String Circle", commissioned for Ms. Mendoza by V.J. Jordan), John Novacek ("Cutaway") and Suzanne Farrin ("Twisting of the Rope," for uilleann bagpipes and string quartet). The quartet is featured in a PBS documentary titled “A Sound Collaboration- The Harrington String Quartet.” The Harrington Quartet recording of three commissioned works by Daniel McCarthy is available on Albany Records.

Ms. Mendoza has been a guest with the Pro Arte Quartet and the Miami String Quartet, and has collaborated with esteemed artists such as Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, Corey Cerovsek, and Daniel Blumenthal. She has spent summers performing and teaching at festivals nationwide including Interlochen Arts Camp, Chamber Music at the Barn, Mammoth Lakes Music Festival, Madeleine Island Music Camp and Midwest Young Artists. She has given master classes and recitals at the University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Wichita State University, and most recently at Renmin University in Beijing, China. This summer she will teach and perform at the Killington Music Festival in Vermont and the Raphael Trio Workshop in New Hampshire.

A former principal violist with the New World Symphony, Ms. Mendoza had the opportunity to work with many world-renowned conductors including Michael Tilson Thomas, Christophe Eschenbach, and Donald Runnicles. She toured South America with the orchestra and performed in the Hamptons and Italy as a chamber musician on behalf of the orchestra. Since then, she has performed at the Quartz Mountain Music Festival, Bellingham Festival of Music, Colorado Music Festival, the Oregon Bach Festival and with Santa Fe Pro Musica.

Originally from Milwaukee, Ms. Mendoza earned her Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with Richard Blum and Sally Chisholm. She received   her Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School where she studied with William Lincer. Her chamber music coaches have included members of the Amadeus, Juilliard, and Cleveland Quartets.