Biography

Award-winning conductor Javier José Mendoza enjoys a varied career that spans classical and popular music. Most recently, he collaborated with Warner Music Latina and Yandel to premiere Yandel Sinfónico in Miami. This concept, which bridges música urbana with symphonic music, began its World Tour 2025 and resulted in the Grammy-nominated album Yandel Sinfónico en Vivo. Mendoza has been featured with Yandel Sinfónico on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and at some of the most-viewed events in the Spanish-speaking world, including the Viña del Mar Festival and the Velada del Año. With Yandel Sinfónico, Mendoza has conducted major orchestras across Latin America.

Mendoza is also the Director of Orchestral Studies at Florida International University Wertheim School of Music (FIU). At FIU, Maestro Mendoza conducts the FIU Symphony Orchestra, the FIU Festival Orchestra, and Opera Theatre productions along with teaching conducting. In 2026, he led the FIU Symphony Orchestra to perform Antonio Estevez’s Cantata Criolla at the Auditorio Nacional de la Música in Madrid. During the 2023-24 season, Mendoza was a Fulbright Research Fellow at the Centro Superior de Investigación y Promoción de la Música and Honorary Professor at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. He also coordinated the School of Music collaboration with the Santa Fe Opera from 2020-2025, which led to the premiere of Is This America?, an opera in one act commissioned by the Opera for All Voices consortium headed up by the Santa Fe Opera. Is This America? tells the story of voting rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer and was written by Chandler Carter and Diana Solomon-Glover.

Mendoza was the Artistic Director of the Chicago Arts Orchestra (CAO) from 2005-2021. Under Mendoza’s direction, the CAO has consistently been named a “Critics Pick” by Time Out Chicago and a “Recommend” by the Chicago Tribune’s John von Rhein. Early Music Today praises the CAO, “the Chicago Arts Orchestra plays terrifically,” and Steven Ritter of Audiophile Audition claims that the CAO is an “exciting group for sure.” In 2014, Mendoza led the CAO to being named “Professional Orchestra of the Year” by The Illinois Council of Orchestras. Mendoza’s work with the CAO can be heard on the albums Al combate and Ignacio Jerusalem: Mass in G. In 2017, Mendoza led the CAO on tour to Mexico City with performances at the Catedral Metropolitana, Anfiteatro Simón Bolivar, and Sala Nezahualcóyotl. Mendoza has appeared as a conductor with the CAO at the Chicago Latino Music Festival from 2015-17, the largest festival of its kind in the USA, and also collaborated regularly with the Ravinia Festival through their Reach Teach Play program. Mendoza presented the first orchestral concert performed at Tulum, one of the last cities built and inhabited by the Maya, with Opera Maya.

Mendoza is active in a movement to unearth and re-debut forgotten works from viceregal Latin America and is energetically re-premiering pieces in an effort to bring this wonderful music back into public awareness. Fanfare Magazine describes Mendoza as one of the “guiding lights” in this movement. He has presented lectures on the subject at Loyola University-Chicago, the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Virginia Tech, Instituto Cervantes, International University of Andalucía, the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, and the Fulbright Mediterranean Research Conference. In addition to recording repertoire in this area with the CAO, he has also recorded the albums El Cielo y Sus Estrellas and Italia en España with the Camerata Antonio Soler of Madrid.

Mendoza often conducts at festivals internationally, including the Grand Opening concert of the Miami International Piano Festival, conducting the closing concert of the Festival Internacional de Música Renacentista y Barroca Americana- “Misiones de Chiquitos” in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, and concerts at St. Francis Auditorium in collaboration with the Young Voices of the Santa Fe Opera and members of the FIU Symphony Orchestra. Of particular note are his performances of the Cantata Criolla presented in 2024 and 2026 in collaboration with CUSIB Global.