Advocating for Diversity, How Cellist Thomas Mesa and the Sphinx Competition Are Changing the Narrative
Thomas Mesa.
Born into the warm embrace of a Cuban-American family in sun-drenched Miami, cellist Thomas Mesa was drawn to both the world of sport and the world of music. His decision to pursue the career of a musician has proven to be the profoundly correct one.
A graduate of Juilliard and winner of multiple competitions, Mesa has performed as soloist with some of America’s finest orchestras. He also plays in various chamber ensembles with other stellar young musicians. Mesa now works with the Sphinx organization to bring more diversity to classical music. With several recording projects under his belt and more on the way, Mesa is poised to become one of his generation’s most outstanding cellists.
Thomas Mesa Grows Up in Miami
Mesa is proud of his Cuban heritage and honors his family for their support.
“I would say it’s an identity that I’m very proud of,” Mesa said. “My grandmother made Cuban food for me. I think it’s the ultimate comfort food. It’s been interesting getting involved in the Sphinx organization and meeting other people who are either from Cuba, or their parents are from Cuba. I relate to them very intensely, just the cultural values. So it is a big part of who I am and what I want to do.”
Mesa’s father was born in Cuba but then emigrated to the United States when he was around two-years-old. His family started a plumbing business in Miami, Florida, where Mesa was born. Mesa says that his parents aren’t musicians and neither are his four siblings.
“They’re in sports,” Mesa said. “One of them is going to be an environmental lawyer and there are a couple of lacrosse players. Everyone does very different things, but no other musicians.”
Mesa was also intensely interested in sports, specifically tennis, but he was introduced to the cello when he joined his school’s band to play drums.“I was in middle school, and it was an accident,” Mesa said. “I wanted to be in band and play the drums, but I accidentally picked orchestra, thinking there were drums in the orchestra, but there weren’t. I had to switch and play violin for a year, and then I started playing cello when I was around 11 or 12. And that kind of stuck.”
Even though Mesa says classical music isn’t “wildly popular” in Miami’s Cuban community, his parents found ways to nurture his growing interest in music.
“My parents would take me to classical music concerts, like Miami’s New World Symphony,” Mesa said. “I also went to summer programs and my mom got me CDs of Jacqueline du Pré. So there were ways to get classical music in Miami, even though there wasn’t a big culture revolving around it. Cubans in general are very curious people, and I think they’re excited when they see people doing something they’re passionate about because there’s so much passion in the culture.”
For high school, Mesa’s parents sent him to Walnut Hill School for the Arts, a boarding school in Natick, Massachusetts. It was there that he studied cello with Mark Churchill.
“He was an awesome teacher,” Mesa said. “He changed my life, making me feel like I could do music for a living. I think it was a turning point going to that school because I was around other people who were intense and excited about music.”
Thomas Mesa’s “Surprising” Acceptance to Juilliard
The strong competitive spirit at Walnut Hill prepared Mesa for what he considered one of the audacious acts of his young life: applying to the world-renowned Juilliard School. To his astonishment, he was accepted.
“At the time it a miracle in my mind,” Mesa said. “It was unexpected, but I was definitely surprised and happy that I had the opportunity to go. That kept the inspiration going to keep doing music. All the teachers I had from there on out just really helped fuel all that. I give a lot of credit to some really great teachers.”
His most important teacher at Juilliard was cellist Timothy Eddy, a founding member of the Orion Quartet. Mesa graduated from Juilliard in 2012. His next step was to apply for graduate school at Northwestern University so he could study with another highly regarded cellist, Hans Jørgen Jensen.
“He is an incredibly inspiring and intense teacher in the cello world,” Mesa said. “He had so many wonderful students, I knew I had to study with him. I wanted to go the competition route, and I knew what it was going to take: Lots and lots of practice time and very clear cut practice techniques that were successful. Hans Jensen has a great track record with very successful, competition-winning students.”
Soon, Mesa was to become another one of Jensen’s success stories.
Thomas Mesa Joins the Sphinx Family
After receiving his master’s from Northwestern, Mesa began working on his doctorate at the Manhattan School of Music under Julia Lichten, which is still in progress. But he also began taking part in competitions.
In 2015, he won the $50,000 First Prize in the 2016 Sphinx Competition, which changed his life profoundly in more ways than one. Mesa is still very much involved with Sphinx, an organization dedicated to increasing the presence of Black and Latino artists in classical music.
“They are my family,” Mesa said. “I absolutely love so many people affiliated with that organization. Ever since 2016, they’ve been so helpful in so many ways for my career. Between funding recording projects and major appearances with major orchestras, solo opportunities with Sphinx Virtuosi and, of course, being featured in multiple ways with their performing ensembles, they’re just so great.”
Mesa also strongly agrees with their mission and sees it as his mission, too.
“They stand for something that is really wonderful,” he said. “I love to take these principles and apply them to what I do, making sure that I'm programming music that reflects the population, whether it’s man, woman, Black, Latino, Latina. We need to include everybody on the concert stage”
After the big Sphinx win, Mesa won the Astral Artists 2017 National Auditions. He has also performed as soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.
Mesa also regularly performs chamber music with various ensembles like the Jupiter Chamber Players and has been making recordings, too. His current project is an album with pianist Michelle Cann.
“We did a call for scores from specifically Black and Latin composers,” Mesa said. “We had this menu of a hundred pieces we picked from. It took a long time, but we narrowed it down to five. I’ve got to say, as much as I love the Rachmaninoff sonata and Beethoven sonatas and the Brahms sonatas, there’s something extra exciting about feeling like you’re playing music that people don’t know about. I’m just happy to support composers who deserve a voice.”
When It Comes to Tennis and Cello, for Thomas Mesa It’s Love All
Amidst his incredible music schedule, Mesa still finds time for his early love, tennis. He loves to wax philosophical about the connection between the “sport of kings” and cello.
“I could talk about this all day,” Mesa said. “I think the dynamic motion of swinging a racket is so similar to pulling the bow, being able to swing a racket as one organism, being able to move the bigger muscles first and having the smaller muscles follow. The physical endurance that it takes is also very similar. Playing a full recital of different works and different styles, having full focus for a couple of hours is one of the binding principles between the two.”
Given Mesa’s intense touring schedule, having good endurance is crucial. He is currently planning a 30-venue recital tour with his good friend, pianist Ilya Yakushev. The tour will include stops at Carnegie Hall and the MET Museum. But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has created roadblocks for Yakushev.
“Unfortunately right now he’s in Russia,” Mesa said. “He’s in a tough position with his family over there. Of course, he doesn’t agree with anything that’s happening, but what can you do if someone looks at a person’s last name and says you can’t play? We have had about three cancellations, and they were pretty big concerts. Unfortunately, all we can do is keep together and keep faith that people will look beyond his last name. He’s a great guy and he loves America so, so, so much.”
As much as Mesa loves touring and the life of an international classical musician, he is equally passionate about teaching.
“One of my dreams is to teach at a major conservatory or a major university, where I have a platform to recruit great students and give them lots and lots of scholarships,” Mesa said. “I love teaching so much. People say you’re either a teacher or a performer, and you do one in a major way and you do one in a minor way. I kind of want to do both in a major way.”
If anyone can do both in a major way, it’s Mesa.
