On most mornings, Frost School of Music alumnus Jorge Mejia wakes up at 5 a.m. to compose and play piano, finding creative fulfillment making and recording music, and success as a Latin Grammy nominee and Steinway Artist.
Then Mejia heads to his day job as president & CEO of Sony Music Publishing’s Latin and U.S. Latin Divisions, overseeing a roster of stars that includes Shakira, Maluma, Edgar Barrera, Marc Anthony, Daddy Yankee, Luis Fonsi, Tainy, Camilo, and many more, regularly featured in Billboard magazine’s annual lists of top music industry executives. This year he was featured in lists of both International Power Players (his fourth time) and U.S. Power Players (third time); he’s been on the magazine’s Latin Power Player list 11 times.
How does he do both? Because he needs to, Mejia says. His pre-dawn music-making “is a necessity for me, it allows me to keep balanced, keep grounded. At this point it’s become an integral part of being an executive… having an intimate knowledge of the creative process, the frustration, the elation, certainly informs my work when I’m talking to a creative.”
Born in Bogota, Colombia, Mejia’s family moved to Miami when he was 13, and he has been fundamentally shaped by this uniquely multi-cultural city; he attended the acclaimed New World School of the Arts, worked at Books & Books, the city’s beloved indie bookstore, loves the ocean and the tropical heat. “Miami is very special,” he says. “It’s a city at the crossroads between the U.S. and the rest of the world, with Latin America. A city that celebrates and embraces my two cultures, a city where you can still be a part of its becoming.”
Both Mejia’s creative and business sides were nurtured at the Frost School, where (after a year at Boston’s New England Conservatory of Music) he graduated cum laude in 1996 with a degree in classical piano performance. Then a Frost professor helped him get an internship at Miami-based Sony Music Latin, launching Mejia on his dual career.
“That internship changed my life,” Mejia says. He had started a rock band, and initially just wanted stability and to understand the industry. But he discovered that “I enjoy managing people, I enjoy numbers, I really enjoy that intersection of music and business. I’ve had the opportunity to work with some of the best songwriters in the world. It’s been a wonderful opportunity that informs the way I look at music, the way I look at my field.”
Sony’s Latin publishing division has flourished under Mejia’s leadership, regularly winning accolades from ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC, the three music rights organizations, as Latin music has soared to new heights of global popularity and cultural influence. Mejia is proud of the part that he and Sony have played in that achievement. “Latin culture, and especially music in Spanish is at a pivotal moment; it’s become part of the global playlist,” he says. But he’s also characteristically modest about his role. “I attribute our success to a confluence of the best team, incredible songwriters, and amazing timing for the industry,” he says.
He's created innovative and intensely personal, narrative musical projects. After a 2015 first album of solo and orchestral piano works, his second, 2018’s “An Open Book: A Musical Memoir,” paired short written evocations of moments in his life – his childhood in Colombia, first love - with musical compositions, so that one enriched the other. “It connected people to the music in a different way,” Mejia says. Praised by critics as “virtuoso, captivating” (Billboard) and “an instant classic… a rigorous and eclectic work” (El Nuevo Herald), “Open Book” was nominated for a Latin Grammy for Best Contemporary Classical Composition.
Mejia’s latest piece is a concerto for piano and orchestra entitled “If These Walls Could Talk.” It’s inspired by a small, Art Deco era Miami Beach apartment building where Mejia lived in the 2010’s and his musings about its role in city’s history: the devastating Great Miami Hurricane of 1926, serving as an army barracks during WW II, a home for Jews seeking peaceful retirement, Cubans who came on the Mariel Boatlift, the notorious drug wars of the 1970’s and 80’s, and the South Beach renaissance that bloomed in the 90’s. The work’s three movements are entitled The First Floor, The Second Floor, and The Rooftop, which adds a rock band and, when performed live, audience vocals for a joyful, celebratory conclusion.
The Frost School has continued to play a role in Mejia’s artistic life. He recorded “Open Book” with the Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra and premiered it at Gusman Concert Hall. In February he performed music from "If These Walls Could Talk" at the Newman Recital Hall in the Frost School’s Knight Center for Innovation; recorded with the London Symphony, it will be released in September. (The producer is fellow Frost alum Julio Reyes, M.M. ‘00.)
Mejia is also a longtime member of the Frost School’s Dean’s Advisory Board. His involvement with Frost aligns with his deep Miami roots and passion for the city and its culture. “I am a firm believer in giving back to institutions that helped me,” Mejia says. “It’s been great seeing the development of the school, of the students, of the ideas and dreams that Shelly and others have brought to fruition.”
