Kozue Funakoshi joined the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 2000, after three years with the Cleveland Orchestra. A former concertmaster of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, she studied with Hideyuki Nimura, Joseph Genualdi, and Sando Shia. A native of Yokohama, Japan, Funakoshi grew up in Kamakura. Her father was a rock musician who played guitar and piano, and her mother was a kindergarten teacher. In 1987, she received first prize at the All Japan Young Musicians Competition and was awarded a full scholarship to the Tokyo College of Music, where she received a bachelor’s degree.
Funakoshi has appeared on the Cleveland Orchestra’s chamber music series, at the Kurashiki Music Festival directed by conductor Takashi Asahina, and as a soloist on the Thüringer Philharmonic Orchestra’s 1993 German concert tour. She also served as concertmaster for the Tokyo College of Music Symphony Orchestra’s 1993 U.S. concert tour, which included performances in Orchestra Hall in Chicago, Carnegie Hall in New York and the Kennedy Center in Washington (D.C.). In 2008, Funakoshi performed with the Asia Philharmonic Orchestra under Myung-Whun Chung.
