Wilfredo Mendoza Castillo

Peruvian singer and songwriter from Magdalena de Cao, La Libertad. Singer, composer, musical instrument performer, art teacher, journalist, promoter of culture. At school he was the center of attraction, he sang all day. This vocation led him to participate in every song festival that was presented; however, he could not win a first place. Juanita Gómez (Opera singer from Trujillo) was his first teacher; Later it was the teacher Ibaeza (Chilean), with him he would accentuate his knowledge of vocal imposition. In elementary school, a teacher told him that he had no conditions for singing "which served as a stimulus and challenge to become the best of singers". And the successes began to arrive with protest music in 1973, at the Inkari Festival, the organizers made Juan Diez Morales win with a song by the composer José Escajadillo, but the audience protested, took him on stage and made him the winner with the songs "Pobre Juan" and "Revolución" which earned him international recognition, traveling throughout the country and then to countries such as Chile, Ecuador and Cuba. In 1979 he won a festival in the city of Eten, Chiclayo; in this event the arranger was Max Ucañay, Director of Grupo 5 (2), who invited him to belong to this group. Hw would do it after 1980. As a singer of ballads in Grupo 5 (2). After two years in Grupo 5 (2), he resigned and formed the Grupo Fantasia De Monsefú; later he would integrate for a short time "Escala Musical" by Lambayeque; then he formed "La Pandilla", he ended up forming his own Orchestra with the support of his friend and fellow seminarian Juan Julio Collantes, after two years this cycle as a professional singer would conclude.