Prof. Dr. Emilio Mendoza Guardia
  Quinta La Perla, El Toronjil, San Antonio de los Altos, Estado Miranda, 1204  Venezuela

+58 414 396 7463 • emiliomen@gmail.com  • https://ozonojazz.com/emilio/

https://emiliomendozaguardia.academia.edu/
Full Professor of Music, Universidad Nacional Experimental de las Artes (UNEARTE), Caracas, Venezuela
Guitarist, Orchestra of Latin American Instruments - ODILA-TTC, Foundation Teresa Carreño Theatre, Caracas

Full Professor of Music (Ret.), Universidad Simón Bolívar, Caracas, Venezuela

CV

Emilio Mendoza Guardia is a Venezuelan music composer, guitarist, researcher, and university professor. He has developed a professional creative production in the three domains of music activity in our current society: regional music, media music, and new art music.
He has been focused lately as an ecological musical activist on reducing sonic pollution on Earth with his group Ozono Jazz, and making the guitar the basis for all music education through his method Patterns.

•  England
    - William Ellis Grammar School, London: GCE "O" & "A" Levels, 1965-1972.
    - Accepted at Sussex University, England, to study Physics, but moved to Venezuela.
•  Venezuela
    - J. M. Olivares Music School, Caracas: Classical Guitar with Maestra Flaminia de DeSola and Antonio Lauro, 1973-1976.
    - Metropolitan University, Caracas: Composition Certificate with Maestro Yannis Ioannidis, 1974-1976.

•   Germany
- Robert Schumann Institut Musikhochschule, Düsseldorf: Diplom in Komposition und Live-Elektroniks, with Prof. Günther Becker, 1976-1981.

•  Ghana
    - Center for African Music, Krokobitey: West African percussion and dance with Master Drummer Mustapha Tettey Addy, Sept. - Dec., 1981.
•  USA
    - The Catholic University of America, The Benjamin T. Rome School of Music, Washington, DC: Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition, 1987-1990.

Work Experience

(For complete list, please see Docencia, Cargos, in Spanish)
(For English list of courses given in higher education, see CV-ENGLISH.pdf, p. 11)

•    Director and Researcher, Orchestra of Latin American Instruments - ODILA, INIDEF, Caracas.
1/1/1982 -  28/2/1985.

•    Chief of the Music Division, Venezuelan National Library, Caracas.
1/3/1985 -  31/7/1987.

•    Assistant Professor of Music, State University of New York (SUNY) College at Potsdam, NY.
1/9/1991 -  31/8/1995. The last year was spent on research leave in Venezuela.

•    Guest Professor, Institut für Musik und Musikpädagogik, Universität Potsdam, Germany,
1/9/1994 -  16/12/1994.

•    President, FUNDEF, the Foundation of Ethnomusicology and Folklore, Caracas.
1/3/1995 -  17/8/1997.

•    Guest Professor, Music Graduate Studies, Venezuelan Central University (UCV), Caracas.
6/1/1997 -  26/6/1998.

The list of all publications appears further down, includes peer-reviewed papers, articles not reviewed, books, entries in encyclopedia, electronic publishing, writings in newspapers and magazines, websites, and a list of papers/workshops presented in congresses.

(For English list of publications, see p. 1; of congresses attended, see p. 15,  CV-ENGLISH.pdf)
See also: https://emiliomendozaguardia.academia.edu/

Text

The writings can found in pdf in the website under "Escritos por tema" or for a selection of them.. The last peer-reviewed writings have been:

•    Mendoza, Emilio. "Mach Schau!: The contribution of The Beatles to the development of Visual Music in Magical Mystery Tour." In: Julia Merrill, ed. Popular Music Studies Today. Proceedings of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music 2017. Systematische Musikwissenschaft. Wiesbaden: Springer, 2017, 186-201. ISBN 978-3-658-17739-3.


•    Rosas González, Otilia and Emilio Mendoza. "El Carnaval de El Callao y el Calipso Venezolano: Negociación entre Tradición y Turismo." In: Marcos González Pérez, ed. Carnavales y Nación. Estudios sobre Brasil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba y Venezuela. Bogotá: Intercultura Colombia, 2014, 170-201. ISBN: 978-958-99944-2-9.


•    Mendoza, Emilio. "Neofolklore, Fusión & Proyección, Merengue Venezolano, Canción de Protesta, Calipso Venezolano." In: David Horn and John Shepherd, eds. Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World (EPMOW), Vol IX, Genres: Caribbean and Latin America. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014, 99-104. ISBN: HB: 978-1-4411-4197-2.

•     The two books published by Mendoza are out of print, but there are two new ones in preparation, dedicated to the Guitar and the Bandola performance. See them at the website under "Libros".

•    Mendoza, Emilio. Nuestra Música: Música Popular Tradicional de Venezuela. Caracas: Editorial Tecnocolor, 2001. 3ra. Edición, 2003. Dpto. Legal Nº lf7552001378745. ISBN 980-6071-11-5.

•    Mendoza,  Emilio. editor. Cancionero de Aguinaldos Sanantoñeros 2005-2006. San Antonio de los Altos: Alcaldía Municipio Los Salias, 2005. Depósito Legal Nº lf80020057804440.

Music & Ecological Activism

His music works are published in Germany, Uruguay, Venezuela and in the USA: WDR, Gerig Verlag, Breitkopf & Härtel, Germany; Ediciones Tacuabé, Montevideo; FUNVES, Caracas; SVMC, Caracas; Equinoccio, Caracas; Colla Voce Music, Inc., the Society of Composers Incorporated, USA.  For the lists of compositions, please see the website under "Composiciones". For recordings in CD's, LP's and cassettes, including arrangements in a lesser extent, please see "Grabaciones". In December, 2019, he published his last CD Guarapiche Blues, with his compositions for quartet (nylon 6-string guitar, metal 12-string guitar, bass, maracas), dedicated to a tragic oil-spill in the Guarapiche River, Monagas State, Venezuela, and to the activism to save the "Sound of the Earth".

His experimental compositional and performing work with the Orchestra of Latin American Instruments - ODILA (1982-1987), generated a series of pieces for this unusual ensemble, specially with his work Etnocidio. A strong ecological conscience was present in the work Jungla/RainForest, for Latin American percussion instruments, and this sense of purpose for the environment through music became a red string of his professional development up to today's ecological music activism that he carries on through his group Ozono Jazz, focused in diminishing human noise in the world.

Videos

He produced in 1984-88 a series of three experimental videos with his music, in conjunction with the German director Benno Richard Mauler Lair, under the theme of "oil disasters." Please see Las Tragedias Negras (The Black Tragedies) and specially the video Aloha Tacoa, concentrated on the tragic explosion of enormous oil tanks in Tacoa, Venezuela in 1982.

His last production (2009 - today), Sin-Cadenas.tube, is part of a series of "concert-installations" called Aprisionamientos (Imprisonments), and employs live, video alterations through a computer connected to the guitar, of the TV-image of Hugo Chavez in his eternal chained-programming of Venezuelan media. Unfortunately, this video cannot be publically viewed due to the prevailing repressive censorship in the country.

Within the production of a series of 31 videos for his group Ozono Jazz, (see Ozono Jazz - videos), his most recent production is Guarapiche Blues (2020) as the last recording of  the prominent Venezuelan singer María Rivas who died last year. In 2017 he produced Canción de Cuna (Lullaby), with the live performance of his music group and two contemporary dancers, as well as Encanto with the live performance of a painter. This piece, together with Espirales, (see video of memorable live-recording in concert Espirales, Encanto), has created a new genre in Venezuelan music called "Joroponovo", based on the traditional dance music (joropo) from the flat lands (llanos), employing specifically the performing techniques of the harp and bandola, translated onto the guitar with great demands on technique.

Websites (See whole list here)

•     In 1995 Mendoza developed the first cultural website of Venezuela with photos, sounds and videos, the "Virtual Museum of Musical Instruments in Latin America and the Caribbean," when acting as President of the Foundation of Ethnomusicology and Folklore, FUNDEF, Caracas, with additional information on the diverse and beautiful collections of the institution. See website FUNDEF.

•     In 2004, he developed the "digital songbook" of the Venezuelan rock legend PTT Lizardo, which includes the author's texts, chords and himself performing all the 147 songs in video (most of the materials are not available on web, will be published as CD-ROM). A paper was published about this new "digital songbook: "El Cancionero de PTT: Prototipo de preservación y difusión digital de la música popular venezolana." Música, Ciudades, Redes. Creación musical e interacción social. Actas del V Congreso de la IASPM-España, X Congreso de la SIBE (Sociedad de Etnomusicología). Salamanca: SIBE, 2008. ISBN-13: 978-84-612-7141-2.

•     As president of the SVMC - Venezuelan Society for Contemporary Music (2004-2007), Mendoza developed the society's website SVMC, which remains up to today the only site in the internet which includes information on most Venezuelan new music composers.

Performances 

(For complete list in Spanish, please see Presentaciones)
(For English list of performances of his music, see p. 14, of concerts given p. 20, CV-ENGLISH.pdf)

Dr. Mendoza performs classical, electric and folk guitars, as well as the Cuatro, Bandola llanera and Afro-Latin percussion. He has developed an effective guitar teaching method in final preparation (Patrones de Guitarra) and is presently also working on a Bandola teaching method, an instrument traditional from the flat-lands of Venezuela which descends from the Spanish Bandurria.

Music Groups

Since 1972, he has taken part as director and performer in a long series of music groups which he created and managed, in different styles and set-ups: rock, folk, jazz, Venezuelan and Latin American experimental folk music, new music ensembles, from "Catalysis" (see video from 1973 Giros), to his present group, Ozono Jazz active since 2005, with dancers, painters and video-art, composing and performing as ecological activists for the reduction of human noise in the world. The music groups have always performed Mendoza's original music, with the exception of "La Comarca," and "Axis Jazz Project," which performed jazz standards (for extra income!), and "Tinta China" which was devoted to Beatles, Boleros and Bossas.

Music & Dance

Mendoza has also been involved in creating music for dance groups, specifically for the José Limón Dance Company of New York and for the Ballet Coreoarte in Caracas, working closely in conjunction with the choreographer Carlos Orta to translate music structural concepts to dance, specially the concept of polyphony to "poly-movement" (please see "Danza", and a paper about Orta's production, as well as details of the music pieces presented by the dance groups).

Institutional Ensembles

•       Kokrobitey, Ghana        - West African Percussion & Dance (1981) paper in construction

•       Trinidad                          - Parang Music (1995)

•       Venezuela                      - Carrizo panflutes of San José de Guaribe, Guarico (1986, 1993, 1995)
                                           - San Juan in Chuao, Aragua State (2001, 2002, 2003)
                                           - Joropo Harp Music of Miranda State (2002) paper in construction.
                                          - Calipso from El Callao, Bolivar State (2004, 2006) paper, paper
                                          - Christmas Music from San Antonio, Miranda (2005-6) songbook
                                          - Rock Music of PTT (2004 -2013) website, paper.

Prizes, Distinctions, Grants 
(For complete list, please see Premios, in Spanish)
(For English list of grants, see p. 12, CV-ENGLISH.pdf)

•       Gaudeamus International Composition Prize, Bilthoven, Netherlands (1978), for Pasaje.

•       National Composition Prize, National Council for Culture, Caracas (1991), for Velorio RItual

Research Prize

•       Premio Municipal de Música 2000 (Research), Caracas (2000)  Instrumentos Étnicos...

Recent Distinctions

On his last year at the Simón Bolívar University, before retiring, Mendoza simultaneously achieved three distinctions:

Recent Research Grants

   
•    Ibermúsica for a 2-month research residency (Gastkünstler) at the Zentrum für Kunst und Medien - ZKM, Karlsruhe, June - July 2024.
•    DAAD Stipendiat for a 4-month research residency (Gastkünstler) at the Zentrum für Kunst und Medien - ZKM, Karlsruhe, Sept - Dec 2013.

Memberships 
(For complete list, please see Membrecías, in Spanish)

•     Founding member (1975), previous treasurer, secretary and president, delegate to the ISCM, Venezuelan Society for Contemporary Music (SVMC).

•     Member of the Presidential Council, for two periods (2004 - 2008), International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM).

•     Founding member (2003), previous president, International Association for the Study of Popular Music, Latin American Branch-Venezuelan Chapter (IASPM-LA).

•     Founding member (2013), active president, Venezuelan Society for the Study of The Beatles (SOVEB)

Language Skills

•     Spanish - Native language until reaching the age of 12 years old (1953 - 1965). High writing, understanding and speaking abilities.

•     English - Language acquired in his 7-year stay in London, England (1965 - 1972) as teenager, 8 years in USA as doctorate student (1987 - 1990) and as professor in SUNY-Potsdam until 1994. Took the TOEFL examination in 1987. High writing, understanding and speaking abilities.

•    German - Spent 5 years in Düsseldorf, while studying for his Diplom in Komposition, (1976 - 1981), four months teaching at the Universität Potsdam (1994), and he has been as Gastkünstler in the Zentrum für Kunst und Medien - ZKM, Karlsruhe, for his sabbatical leave for 7 months in 2008, as well as four months as DAAD-Stipendiat (2013) and in two one-month periods (2009, 2017). Medium writing, understanding and speaking abilities, but it always gets better once surrounded by an all-German speaking context.

Personal References
(These personalities can send directly their written recommendations)

•     Peter Swinnen, composer, President of the ISCM - International Society for Contemporary Music, Brussels, Belgium. (peter.swinnen@iscm.org)

•     Ramon Anthin, composer, Executive Director Emeritus and founder of the Visby International Centre for Composers, Gotland, Sweden. (ramon@anthin.se)