Fondazione Accademia di Musica di Pinerolo e Torino

Venezuelan violist Cibel Mendez began her musical studies at the age of 16 in the System of Youth and Children’s Orchestras of Venezuela, better known as “El Sistema”, where she had the wonder occasion to perform numerous symphonic works under the baton of important Venezuelan conductors such as Christian Vásquez, César Iván Lara, Ulises Ascanio, and Dietrich Paredes. She attended the Universidad de Los Andes de Venezuela and completed her undergraduate degree in 2019. During her undergraduate, she experienced many opportunities: served as a viola instructor for children, led workshops for children’s orchestras, performed chamber music in a string quartet, and played viola in an orchestra. After finishing her degree, she served four months as principal viola of the Symphony Orchestra in the State of Merida. From 2019-2021 she lived in Colombia, teaching music to elementary school children at the Bogotá Philharmonic School Project. In addition, she also participated as a violist in the Fundación Orquesta Sinfónica de Bogotá, better known as FOSBO, as well as the Orquesta de Cámara de Colombia, an organization with which she participated in the Cartagena Music Festival 2020, performing music by Colombian composers. In 2021 she obtained a scholarship as a graduate assistant in the Music Performance Program at Kent State University, where she studied with Joanna Patterson Zakany and Gareth Zenghut, both violists at The Cleveland Orchestra. In 2023, she was awarded another scholarship from Cleveland State University, where she studied with William Bender, a violist at The Cleveland Orchestra and Former Assistant Principal Viola at the Philharmonia Orchestra.