Lyrical ballads meet finger-breaking virtuosity, jaw-dropping originals meet ingenious covers, nylon strings meet steel strings. Soenke Meinen only needs two thumbs, eight fingers and one guitar to create music that brims over with creativity and textual dexterity. There’s no need for a band here!
Soenke Meinen was born in Aurich in 1991 and grew up in East Frisia, Lower Saxony, Germany. Initially, his first teacher Emile Joseph and then encounters with guitar greats like Tommy Emmanuel influenced the start of his musical journey. Today Soenke studies with world-renowned guitar phenomena Thomas Fellow, Stephan Bormann and Reentko Dirks and can already look back on countless performances with many different projects.
Soenke still performs solo, but also with Phil Wiechert as the guitar duo “Die PhiliSöphen.” In concerts both domestic and abroad, he has already shared the stage with musicians such as Adam Rafferty, Peter Finger, Brooks Robertson, Joscho Stephan, Joe Robinson, Tim Sparks and many others. Furthermore, he has been the support act for Tommy Emmanuel, Richard Smith and „Hands On Strings“. In spite of his young age he already achieved much success at world-renowned guitar competitions like the “Open Strings” competition in 2008 and the “European Guitar Award” in 2012.
In 2011 Soenke founded the annual “Internationales Freepsumer Gitarrenfestival.” a festival which focuses on the young, international guitar scene.
The outstanding abilities of „the greatest and most musical guitar talent under the Frisian sun“ (as famous German comedian and musician Otto Waalkes describes Soenke) combined with an impressive musical maturity makes a Soenke Meinen show a unique concert experience.