Curriculum Vitae - Download CV as pdf

Ava Mendoza, B.A.

EDUCATION

Mills College, Oakland, Bachelor of Arts in Intermedia Arts, 2006

California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA 2001-02

Interlochen Arts Academy, Interlochen, MI 1998-2001

GRANTS, RESIDENCIES, COMMISSIONS, AND AWARDS

2020 New Music Solidarity Fund

2020 Seven Star Arts Centre Violin-Building for Musician Aid

2018 Film Score Commission by Kino Lorber

2018 Composition Commission by Living Earth Show

2016 Bimhuis Carte Blanche (Amsterdam, NE)

2016 The Stone NYC Artist Residency (NY, NY)

2015 Eminent Artist in Residence MONA FOMA Festival (Tasmania, AU)

2012 Live Score Commission by SF International Film Festival

2011 Live Score Commission by SF Film Society

2009 Dah Teatar Residence w/ Theater of Yugen (Belgrade, RS)

PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS:

Happy Lucky No. 1 Community Arts Space (Brooklyn, NY) Music Curator 2019-2020

355 BAR (Oakland, CA) Music Curator 2013-2014

Theater of Yugen (SF, CA) Music Curator 2010-2011

SELECTED PERFORMANCES

2020 LaMama NYC (NY, NY) w/ Travis Just’s Object Collection • Ramapo College (Ramapo, NJ) w/ Marc Ribot’s Young Philadelphians • The Stone at the New School (NY, NY) w/ Jon Irabagon’s I Don’t Hear Nothin’ But the Blues

2019 National Sawdust, The Stone Commissioning Series curated by John Zorn (Brooklyn, NY) duo w/ Nels Cline • Vision Festival, Roulette Intermedium, (Brooklyn, NY) w/ Ava Mendoza Quartet • Rockefeller Center (NY, NY) w/ Nick Zinner’s (Yeah Yeah Yeahs) 41 STRINGS • The Stone at the New School (NY, NY) w/ William Parker’s Thunder and Flowers • The Stone at the New School (NY, NY) duo w/ Matana Roberts • Roulette Intermedium (Brooklyn, NY) • Sonic Transmissions Festival (Austin, TX) w/ William Hooker Trio • Target Margin Theater (Brooklyn, NY) w/ dancer Leyya Mona Tawil’s All We Could Give

Solo: Vancouver Jazz Festival (Vancouver, BC, CA) • National Sawdust (Brooklyn, NY) The Stone Commissioning Series, curated by John Zorn.• NUMUS Concert Series (Waterloo, Ontario, CA) • Red Room (Baltimore, MD) • Red Gate Arts Society (Vancouver, BC, CA) •

Unnatural Ways: Vancouver Jazz Festival (Vancouver, BC, CA) • Constellation (Chicago, IL) • Brooklyn Conservatory (Brooklyn, NY)• Intersection Festival of Contemporary Music (Toronto, ON, CA)

James Brandon Lewis Quintet: Warsaw Summer Jazz Days Festival (Warsaw, PL)• North Sea Jazz Festival (Rotterdam, NL), Skopje • Jazz Festival (Skopje, MK) • Berlin Jazz Festival, Quasimodo (Berlin, DE) • So What’s Next Festival (Eindhoven, NE) • Duc Des Lombards (Paris, FR)

2018 National Sawdust (Brooklyn, NY) w/ John Zorn’s COBRA • Amphi Opera National de Lyon (Lyon, FR) w/ Hearing Things-• Joe’s Pub (NY, NY) w/ Erin Markey • The New School Glass Box Theatre (NY, NY) Tomas Fujiwara’s Triple Double • Knockdown Center, (Maspeth, NY) Julius Eastman’s Gay Guerilla• Fuse Factory Electronic and Digital Arts Lab (Colombus, OH) Solo • Miami Psychfest 2018 (Miami, FL) w/ Kool Keith • Fusebox Festival (Austin, TX) w/ Erin Markey

Unnatural Ways: Palac Akropolis (Prague, CZ) • Der Stubnitz (Hamburg, DE) • Kernmacherei (Villingen-Schwenningen, DE)• Le Periscope (Lyon, FR) • Cave 12 (Geneva, CH) • La Malterie (Lille, FR) • Citadelic (Ghent, BE) • Blue Tomato (Vienna, AU) • Machines with Magnets (Pawtucket, RI) • Union Pool (Brooklyn, NY) •Miami Psychfest 2018 (Miami, FL)

Cactus Truck: Cafe Oto (London, UK), Blue Tomato (Vienna, AT), Punctum (Prague, CZ), FMP: The Living Music Festival (Berlin, DE), Les Ateliers Claus (Brussels, BE), Freejazzfestival (Saarbrücken, DE)

Ava Mendoza / Maxime Petit / Will Guthrie: Cafe Oto (London, UK) • Ateliers Claus (Brussels, BE) • Cave12 (Geneva, CH) • Rock.It Festival (Groninge, NE) • La Malterie (Lille, FR)

2017 Moma PS1 (Queens, NY) w/ Adele Bertei • Knockown Center (Brooklyn, NY) • SF Jazz Center, Miner Auditorium (SF, CA) w/ Rova Saxophone Quartet • The Stone NYC (NY, NY) w/ Jon Irabagon’s I Don’t Hear Nothin But the Blues • The Stone NYC (NY, NY) w/ Nels Cline Acoustic Guitars •

Solo: The Lab (SF, CA) • Le Poisson Rouge (NY, NY) • The Waypost, pres. by the Creative Music Guild (Portland, OR) * Oregon State University (Corvallis, OR)

Unnatural Ways: Victoria Nasjonal Jazzscene (Oslo, NO) • Handelsbeurs Concert Hall (Gent, BE)

Bergen Jazzforum (Bergen, NO) • Stadtgarten (Cologne, DE) • Stumpf (Hanover, DE) • Nefertiti (Gothenburg, SE) • Fri Resonans Festival (Gothenburg, SE) • Friese (Bremen, DE) • Der Stubnitz (Hamburg, DE• Machines with Magnets (Pawtucket, RI) • John Zorn’s Stone Festival at The New School (NY, NY)

Jacob Garchik’s Ye Olde: Winter Jazz Festival (NY, NY) • Constellation (Chicago, IL) • Iowa City Jazz Festival (Iowa City, IA)

2016 The Stone NYC (NY, NY) Weeklong Concert Residency • Happy Lucky No. 1 (NY, NY) duo w/ Ingrid Laubrock • 65 Fen (Brooklyn, NY) duo w/ Jessica Pavone • Le Poisson Rouge (NY, NY) w/ Adele Bertei Band • AKUT Festival (Mainz, DE) w/ Mette Rasmussen + Chris Corsano • The Stone NYC (NY, NY) w/ Matana Roberts Group • The Stone NYC (NY, NY) w/ ROVA Saxophone Quartet • The Stone NYC (NY, NY) w/ Matt Mitchell’s Mad Homonyms • The Stone NYC (NY, NY) w/ Erik Friedlander’s Velvet White •The Stone NYC (NY, NY) w/ Jessica Pavone’s Hope Dawson is Missing • The Stone NYC (NY, NY) w/ Fred Frith + Okkyung Lee • The Stone NYC (NY, NY) w/ IMA + Shayna Dunkelman •

Unnatural Ways: Bimhuis part of Ava Mendoza Carte Blanche (Amsterdam, NE) • RASA (Utrecht, NE) • Jazz em Agosto Festival (Lisbon, PT)• STUMPF (Hanover, DE) • Cankarjev Dom Cultural Center (Ljubljana, SI) • A38 (Budapest, HU)

Solo: Bimhuis (Amsterdam, NE) (part of Ava Mendoza Carte Blanche) • No Idea Festival (Austin, TX) • Improvisation Summit of Portland, presented by Creative Music Guild (Portland, OR)Muchmore’s (Brooklyn, NY) • Rhizome (Washington DC) • The Mothlight (Asheville, NC) • The Gallery at Avalon Island, pres. by the CM5 (Orlando, FL) • The Vogue Theatre (Indianapolis, IN) • Concord Music Hall (Chicago, IL) • The Vic Theatre (Chicago, IL) •The Pageant (St Louis, MO) • Cain’s Ballroom (Tulsa, OK)

TEACHING EXPERIENCE: WORKSHOPS, MASTERCLASSES, GUEST LECTURES AND PANELS

Composition and Improvisation Workshop, Dec. 2019
Creative Music Guild thru the NM Bodecker Foundation (Portland, OR)
Improvisation Workshop, Dec. 2019
NOW Society 8 East (Vancouver, BC, CA)
Guitar/Composition Workshop, Jun. 2019
Coastal Jazz and Blues Society (Vancouver, BC, CA
Live Film Scoring Workshop, Mar. 2018
Fuse Factory Electronic and Digital Arts Lab (Colombus, OH)
Guest Lecture, Apr. 2018
Pratt Institute • Contemporary Jazz Avant-Garde class (Brooklyn, NY)
Panel Discussion, May 2017
Parsons School of Design (NY, NY) • The Ruts of Performance: Guitarists share and discuss their methods of moving past creative walls with Ava Mendoza, Erika Anderson (EMA) and Mirah
Solo Workshop and Concert, Feb. 2017
Oregon State University (Corvallis, OR) •OSU Music Production and Technology presents: Ava Mendoza Improvisation and Touring Workshop
Limits of Guitar Masterclass, Jun. 2015
New School of Liberal Arts • Concert and masterclass taught in collaboration with Elliott Sharp and Marco Capelli

FILM SCORES

Tramp Strategy (1911)
Dir. Alice Guy Blaché. Score commissioned by Kino Lorber. Released as part of Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers (2018)
Mis Ojos Lo Tocaran (2015)Dir. Dia Felix. A short documentary on non profit organisation Handcrafting Justice’s work in La Paz, Bolivia.
Buster Keaton: Four Short Films
Live score in collaboration with the band Tuneyards, commissioned by and for the San Francisco International Film Festival
The Bat (1926)
Live score commissioned by the San Francisco Film Society
SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY
Anatomical Snuffbox (I Don’t Hear Nothin’ But the Blues)
Jon Irabagon (sax) Ava Mendoza (guitar) Mick Barr (guitar) Mike Pride (drums). CD, F Magellan Music, 2020
The Paranoia Party (Unnatural Ways-)
LP, CD, Sleeping Giant Glossolalia, Mar. 2019
True False (Negativland)
LP, Seeland, 2019
Acceleration Due to Gravity (Moppa Elliott)
Nate Wooley (trmpt) Dave Taylor (trmbn) Matt Nelson (saxophones) Bryan Murray (saxophones) Kyle Saulnier: bari saxophone) Ava Mendoza (guitar) George Burton (piano) Moppa Elliott (bass) Mike Pride (drums). CD, Hot Cup Records, 2019
Remembering (William Hooker Trio)
William Hooker (drums) Ava Mendoza (guitar) Damon Smith (double bass). Cass., Astral Spirits, 2018
Tan Man’s Hat (Sean Noonan’s Pavees Dance)
Malcolm Mooney (vocals) Ava Mendoza (guitar) Alexis Marcelo (keyboards) Jamaaladeen Tacuma (bass) Sean Noonan (drums). LP, CD, RareNoise, April 2018
We Aliens (Unnatural Ways)
CD, Tzadik, Aug. 2016
Ivory Tower (Ava Mendoza/Sir Richard Bishop)
LP, Unrock, 2016
Unnatural Ways (Unnatural Ways)
LP, New Atlantis, Apr. 2015
Mixed Raced (Zachary James Watkins)
Ava Mendoza (guitar) John Shiurba (guitar). LP, Land and Sea, 2014
Shadow Stories (Ava Mendoza)
CD, Resipiscent, 2010

SELECTED ARTICLES, PUBLICATIONS, AND INTERVIEWS
Ham, Robert “Avant-Garde Guitarist Ava Mendoza on Juggling Projects and Making Music About Borders” Portland Mercury, Dec. 2019
Freeman, Phil “Alien Nation: Derek Bailey Meets Morbid Angel in the Sci-Fi Shredding of Ava Mendoza” The Wire #423, April 2019
Longley, Martin “Ava Mendoza, Nels Cline, and Ralph Towner” All About Jazz, Apr. 2019
Russonello, Giovanni “The Month in Live Jazz: 5 Standout Shows” New York Times, Dec. 2017
Mendoza, Ava“Self Help: Mendoza vs. Mendoza” Arcana VIII: Musicians on Music: 20th Anniversary Edition, NY, NY: Tzadik/Hips Road, edited by John Zorn, Sept. 2017
Allen, Clifford “Review: Guitarist Ava Mendoza’s Residency At The Stone” Jazz Right Now: Improvised and Experimental Music, Nov. 2016
Gluckin, Tzvi “Ava Mendoza: From Trad to Rad” Premier Guitar, Jan. 2016
Cohan, Brad “Meet Ava Mendoza, the Blues and Punk Brutarian Who’s Better at Guitar Than You” Vice Magazine, May 2015
Lefebvre, Sam “Ava Mendoza’s Natural Way” East Bay Express, Apr. 2013
Whitmore, Laura “Exposed: 10 Female Guitarists You Should Know” Guitar World, Dec. 2011