Anna Maria Mendieta

Mendieta was born and raised in San Francisco, California, where she attended the Mercy High School.[1]

Her parents played a number of musical instruments and encouraged their children to take an interest in classical music from a very young age.[2][3] 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 Israeli harpist Efrat Zaklad.[1][2]

She continued her studies at Stanford University with Marjorie Chauvel, and graduated from Notre Dame de Namur University with an honors degree in music. She has also studied privately with Doug Rioth of the San Francisco Symphony, and with Alice Chalifoux at the Salzedo Harp Colony in Camden, Maine.[4]

Mendieta is the principal harpist with the Sacramento Philharmonic Orchestra.[5] She was for many years the principal harpist with The Women's Philharmonic orchestra (which disbanded in 2004), as well as a featured instrumentalist with the Theater Flamenco of San Francisco for several seasons.[4][6] She pioneered contemporary tango music on harp and is the founder, artistic director and harpist of the Tango del Cielo group where she plays music of Ástor Piazzolla, Pablo Ziegler and others. She performed in the Leading Ladies of Tango where she played arrangements of Daniel Binelli, Pablo Ziegler, and Jovano Santos Neto.[6]

In April 2012, Mendieta played with the Madrid Symphony Orchestra at The Vatican in front of Pope Benedict XVI.[3] In October 2012, she featured as a guest soloist with the Vallejo Symphony Orchestra at the The Empress Theatre in Vallejo, California.[3][7]

She has performed on stage with many famous artists, including The Moody Blues, Josh Groban, and Barry Manilow.[8][3]

Her "Del Cielo" ensemble, consisting of harp, strings, and percussion, provides educational outreach programs for the community and won the San Francisco Symphony's "Adventures In Music Program" award in 2016 and 2017.[8]

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