Anna Maria Mendieta

Anna Maria Mendieta enjoys a busy career as a recording artist, orchestral musician, and teacher. She is the principal harpist with the Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera and previously served as the principal harpist with the nationally acclaimed 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. Anna 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.

Anna Maria 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 and collaborating with the most important and influential figures in the tango world. It was since the 1990’s that Anna 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 only use of the harp was for glissando sound 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 hard to execute the stylistic nature, 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, Anna Maria has created a new vision for tango and harp.

In order to have a deeper understanding of the music, Anna Maria began to study tango (the dance) and quickly realized her passion for both art forms. Anna Maria’s “Harp-Tango” project has developed into a multimedia touring concert-show of award-winning musicians and dancers called “Tango Del Cielo”. The show presents a fusion of tango and flamenco with a tribute to the silent films. Ms. Mendieta’s Tango Del Cielo show was the featured show at the 2019 World Tango Festival in Victoria, Canada

Ms. Mendieta continues to be internationally recognized for innovation with her award-winning album Tango Del Cielo for Harp & Orchestra. Featuring the music of Astor Piazzolla and collaborating with Piazzolla’s closest colleagues and Grammy award-winning composers, the album has won 9 international awards, including 4 Global Music Awards, reached #2 on Billboard’s Classical Crossover Charts, and is played on classical music stations around the world.

Anna 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 Anna and her six siblings to learn an instrument at a young age 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]

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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.

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

Played for:
President Bill Clinton
President Mikhail Gorbachev
King Juan Carlos and Queen Sophia of Spain
NFL 2022 Super Bowl VIP Pre-game Event
George Lucas
Pope Benedict XV
Colin Powell
George Schultz
Francis Ford Coppola
Lindsay Wagner
Featured instrumentalist - Theater Flamenco of San Francisco
2006 American Harp Society National Harp Conference.
National Hispanic Week in Washington D.C.
Spoleto Festival
The Central Intelligence Agency

Celebrity Concert Performances:
Andrea Bocelli
Josh Groban
Frank Sinatra Jr.
Olivia Newton John
Fernando de la Mora
Barry Manilow
Johnny Mathis
Moody Blues
Frederica Von Stade
John Denver
Charlotte Church

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)

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