About The Seattle String Ensemble Musicians

Mannfried Funk, Cellist
has won a number of solo competitions and has performed in the United States, Europe, Japan, South America, Middle East and former Soviet Union. Locally he won the 1976 Don Bushell Competition and was a member of the Seattle Symphony, Pacific Northwest Ballet and the Seattle Opera. More recently he has been active as a soloist, teacher and recording cellist for the movie industry. He has also held various Principal Cello positions and was on the U.S. tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Music of the Night". Prior to arriving to Seattle he was Principal and Co-principal Cello of several orchestras in South America and Co-principal Cellist for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute. An active chamber musician, his ensemble, the Pacific Chamber Group, played for Boris Yeltsin on his visit to Seattle, for the Secretary of State at the Russian-American International Trade Convention and in the "Out to Lunch" concert series presented by the Seattle Downtown Association at One Union Square. The Pacific Chamber Group is the permanent Artists in Residence ensemble for the performing arts center, Ascension Arts, located in Magnolia. Mr. Funk will be the featured soloist with the Eastside Symphony in November 2003.

Thane Lewis, Viola
is Principal Viola of the Tacoma Symphony and a former member of the Northwest Sinfonietta. He has performed as Assistant Principal Viola of the Boise Philharmonic and as an extra with the Oregon Symphony. He is the Adjunct String Faculty member at Northwest College and an active studio musician. Mr. Lewis' first book, the biography of violinist Steven Staryk (Mosaic Press, Toronto), was recently reviewed in The Strad.

Video of Thane in live performances:

"The performance you gave was wonderful; it made our event unique." Dawn Bowman, Nordstroms

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"I wanted to take the opportunity to thank you and the Seattle Spring Ensemble, once again, for providing a lovely evening of delightful music for our Holiday party. We were extremely pleased and will definitely remember you for another occasion."
Liz Bosold, Exec. Administrator, Starbucks Coffee Company.

School Performances

"Thanks so much for your performances today. The mix, your commentary, the bit of fun with Bach worked very, very well with what can be a difficult audience. They enjoyed it, most, which probably startled them. That is exactly what I am trying to do up here -- provide the glimmers. You folks make it possible. And just from me, official hat off -- god, what beautiful music. You all did it justice. The Shaker piece almost made me blubber, it was so simple and yet exalted. Yes, Aaron used the theme well and so did CBS for about 30 years -- but the pure form was exquisite. Scott"

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