Eva Beneke

Eva Beneke was born in Berlin/Germany where she took her first guitar lesson at the age of nine and also started learning the piano. At fourteen, she played the guitar and sang in a jazz-band she and her friends had founded. In 1997 she was First Prize-Winner at the International Guitar Festival "Chitarrissima" in Saluzzo, Italy: Premio Citta di Saluzzo. In November 2005 Eva was 2nd prize-winner at the International Guitar Competiton in Zwolle/ The Netherlands (1st prize not awarded).Eva started her studies with Prof. Martin Rennert at the Hochschule der Künste Berlin, the Berlin Arts University, where she received the diploma in music pedagogics in 2002. In 1999 she spent a study-term in Vienna, where she continued her trainig with Prof. Konrad Ragossnig at the Vienna University for Music and Dramatic Arts. In 2004 she was accepted for the prestigous solodiploma-program at the Franz Liszt College in Weimar where she studied with Prof. Thomas Müller-Pering. She completed her studies in Weimar with the Konzertexamen, the highest possible degree awarded to a performer (Solo-Artist-Diploma). In 2007 the University of South California, Los Angeles awarded her a full-tuition scholarship for her studies in the class of Prof. Scott Tennant. Masterclasses with Carlo Marchione, Pepe Romero, Oscar Gighlia, Abel Carlevaro, David Russel and Roland Dyens are completing her musical education.Eva received a scholarship from the Villa Musica Foundation in Mainz/Germany (2004) and thanks to her great interest in teaching the German Federal Ministry awarded her a scholarship in 2005 for her activities in developing new pedagogical concepts in music-teaching with elderly people.Being an ambitious chamber-musician and soloist, she has been invited to numerous performances and festivals such as the Christopher-Summer-Festival (Vilnius, Lithuania), Guitar-Festivals of Münster and Friedrichsrode (Germany) and the Musikfestspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (2006).In Lima, Peru she gave a solo-recital and taught masterclasses in the 13th edtiton of its Festival Internacional de la gitarra (2005).In 2000 she was nominated to perform within the German Symphonic Orchestra (conductor Kent Nagano) at the Los Angeles Opera.