Eva Beneke
Born in East-Berlin (Germany), Eva first laid hands on her father´s guitar at age 8, and later went on to study guitar at the Berlin University of Arts with Prof. Martin Rennert. Her success there led her to the Franz Liszt Hochschule in Weimar to pursue a solo artist diploma with Prof. Thomas Müller-Pering, one of Germany’s most influential guitarists.
In 2007, upon receiving a full scholarship to attend the prestigious USC Thornton School of Music, Eva moved to Los Angeles, where she continued her studies with Scott Tennant, Pepe Romero and jazz-guitar legend Bruce Forman and graduated with a doctorate with honors from the University of Southern California in 2012.
A prize-winner at international guitar competitions in The Netherlands, Italy and the U.S., Eva Beneke is now known as an internationally acclaimed soloist, chamber musician and published arranger. Her performances are being broadcast nationally and internationally on radio and television, such as NPR´s “Performance Today”, KUSC and ABC-tv.
Highlights of her career include appearances with the German Symphony Orchestra under Kent Nagano, invitations to international music festivals in China, Peru, Germany, Lithuania, the U.S. and Canada, and a live performance with Carrie Underwood at the 2010 American Country Music Awards.
Her solo debut-CD “Coming Home” with works by Bach, Beneke and Domeniconi was praised by Classical Guitar Magazine´s reviewer Steve Marsh as worthy of “a place on my ‘special’ shelf which contains all the recordings which stand out from the rest and get played time and time again.” (2010)
A frequent collaborator, she has quickly become one of the most sought-after chamber-musicians of her field: her 2012 album “In Dulci Jubilo – A Classical Guitar Christmas” is a duo-collaboration with Grammy®-winning guitarist Scott Tennant of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet and was released by Guitar Salon International.
Her latest album is a NAXOS recording of Fernando Sor´s “Complete Works for Voice and Guitar” (released in 2017) with Spanish mezzo-soprano Nerea Berraondo. The American Record Guide writes: “These performances are anything but boring. Eva Beneke´s playing is…consistently beautiful, sensitive and expressive, with a flawless technical command”.