Elke Funk-Hoever began taking cello lessons at the age of 9. While still in high school, she was a young student at the Stuttgart University of Music under Rudolf Gleißner. After graduating from high school, she studied at the Berlin University of the Arts with Wolfgang Boettcher and at the Juilliard School in New York with Zara Nelsova and the Juilliard String Quartet. She rounded out her training with master classes under Heinrich Schiff, Natalia Gutman, André Navarra, Thomas Demenga, and György Sebők. Elke Funk-Hoever received support as a scholarship recipient from the German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes), the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Banff Centre for the Arts (Canada), and Rotary International. The musician has received numerous awards at competitions, including the national “Jugend musiziert” competition, the Siegfried Barchet Competition of the Richard Wagner Society in Stuttgart, and the International Competition for Orchestral Instruments in Gernsbach. In 1994, as a semifinalist in the international ARD Competition in the cello category, she was invited to Venezuela to lead a master class there. Elke Funk-Hoever was a member of the German National Youth Orchestra, the European Community Youth Orchestra, and the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra under Leonard Bernstein. As a soloist, she has performed with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the Baden Chamber Orchestra, the symphony orchestras of Barquisimeto and Caracas, the Munich Youth Orchestra, and the orchestras of Baden-Baden and Bad Reichenhall. Elke Funk-Hoever is also a sought-after chamber music partner both in Germany and abroad and has performed with inspiring musicians such as Thomas Brandis, Sharon Kam, Gilbert Kalish, Eduard Brunner, and Roglit Ishay. In 2000, she founded the Verdandi Piano Trio, and for several years now she has been playing with the Trio Plus ensemble. Since 1994, she has been a member of the cello section of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra.
