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 age fourteen, she and her friends founded a pop/jazz-band that remained active for six years.

She studied guitar with Prof. Martin Rennert at the Berlin Arts University, where she graduated with a Masters in Music Education in 2002. In 1999, she spent six months in Vienna, where she continued her training with Prof. Konrad Ragossnig at the Vienna University for Music and Dramatic Arts. In 2003, she entered the studio of Prof. Thomas Müller- Pering at the "Franz- Liszt Hochschule" Weimar, where she received the highest artistic degree, solo-artist diploma, in 2007.

She has been invited to perform in various concerts and festivals around the world: in solo recitals, with chamber music ensembles, and with orchestras, in events such as the Christopher Summer Festival (Lithuania 2007), music festivals in Münster and Friedrichsrode (Germany), and Lima (Peru 2005), where she gave a concert and taught masterclasses in the thirteenth edition of its Guitar Festival.

Eva has taken master classes with Carlo Marchione, Pepe Romero, Oscar Gighlia, Abel Carlevaro, David Russell and Roland Dyens while completing her musical education. In 2007 the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music awarded her a scholarship for her graduate studies with Scott Tennant. She is a member of the "Thornton Baroque Sinfonia". Her first CD, including several of her own compositions, was released in spring 2010. Her music has been published with Clear Note Publications in Powell, Ohio.

Teaching Activities

Thanks to her passion for teaching, the German Federal Ministry awarded her a scholarship for her activities in developing new concepts in teaching music to elderly people (2005). Recently, she has been involved in neighborhood outreach projects that bring music education to underprivileged kids in south central Los Angeles. She is a guitar instructor for the Broadoaks School at Whittier College and holds a Teaching Assistantship at the USC Thornton School of Music.

Eva has been teaching guitar privately at schools in Germany and the U.S. for over 10 years. She teaches private guitar lessons in Hollywood, Wilshire, and Silverlake.

Prizes, Scholarships and Awards

Los Angeles, USA 2008
Winner of the Donald Miller Concerto Competition at USC

Mexico, 2008
Finalist at the International Guitar Competition Culiacán

Netherlands, 2005
2nd prize at the "International Guitar Festival Zwolle" (1st prize not awarded)

Saluzzo, Italy 1997
1st prize "Chitarrissima", International Guitar Competition

Los Angeles 2009

Presser Foundation Music Award 2009

Los Angeles, USA 09/10
Teaching assistantship at USC in support of doctoral program at USC

Los Angeles, USA 08/09
Colburn Foundation Early Music Award

Los Angeles, USA 2007-09
Franklin Hunter Memorial Endowed Music Scholarship: a full tuition scholarship for studies at USC Thornton School of Music

Los Angeles, USA 2007-08
Thornton School of Music "Board of Advisors" nominated Mentee of counseling program, including renowned artists and performers in L.A.

Weimar, Germany 2006
Stipend of the Research Ministry of the State of Thuringia

Mainz, Germany, 2004
Villa Musica Stipend

Weimar, Germany 2004
Stipend of the Research Ministry of the State of Thuringia

Languages Spoken:

Fluent: English, German