Arne Zeller

Born in 2006, Arne Zeller began playing the cello at six years old, and from the age of 14 attended the Leipzig University of Music and Theatre as a young student under Peter Bruns alongside school. After completing his Abitur school-leaving certificate in 2024, he has been studying with Frans Helmerson at Kronberg Academy since October of that year. His studies are funded by the Dorothea Neuhaus Scholarship. Attending regular masterclasses with Jens Peter Maintz since 2021 has likewise provided him with much valuable musical inspiration. 

Arne has been the recipient of numerous awards and accolades, including first prize in the International Cello Competition “Anna Kull” (Graz, 2020), first prize in the Gustav Mahler Prize Cello Competition (Prague, 2022), second prize in the 29th International Johannes Brahms Competition (Pörtschach, 2023) and first prize in the 40th Pablo Casals Award (El Vendrell, 2024). In addition, he has been crowned winner of the National Prize and several Special Prizes in the German national “Jugend musiziert” competition on numerous occasions.

During 2022 and 2024, Arne was an active participant in the Cello Masterclasses at Kronberg Academy, where he was also selected to take part in the 2024 Chamber Music Connects the World project. International chamber music courses such as the Geneva International String Academy, the Henle Chamber Music Academy and the Soloists Programme of the Verbier Festival have likewise given him all important chamber music experiences. Further to this, he has participated in the academies of the Moritzburg Festival and the Con Spirito Festival in Leipzig.

Through his concert appearances, Arne Zeller has shared the stage with artists including Gidon Kremer, Lawrence Power, Jens Peter Maintz, Peter Bruns, Valentin Erben, Noémie Bialobroda, Sergey Ostrovsky, Jan Vogler and Torleif Thedéen, as well as the Eliot Quartett. 

He made his concert debut at the age of 13 with Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme, which was followed by performances with the Philharmonie Baden-Baden, the Euro Symphony Orchestra, MainKammerOrchester and Kremerata Baltica. In 2024, he gave several solo performances with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony as part of a project for students of schools and special schools in Hesse, which aimed to convey music directly to students. During that same year, he was a soloist with Mainz University Orchestra playing for 2000 primary school pupils at Alte Oper Frankfurt directed by Felix Koch.

From 2021 to 2024, Arne was a member of the prize-winning international string ensemble LGT Young Soloists, with whom he performed worldwide.

Masterclasses with Ivan Monighetti, Hans Jørgen Jensen, Jan Vogler, Gary Hoffmann and Steven Isserlis have also been sources of musical inspiration for him.

In October 2024, Arne formed a piano trio with violinist Leonhard Baumgartner and pianist Simon Haje which, through the Academy of Music in Liechtenstein, will perform an international series of concerts during 2025.

He holds scholarships from Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben, the International Academy of Music in Liechtenstein and from the German Academic Scholarship Foundation. He is likewise sponsored by the Peter Klöckner-Stiftung and is supported by the “Freunden Junger Musiker” initiative in Mainz/Wiesbaden.

Other significant accolades include the 2022 Lichtenberger Musikpreis, the 2022 Werner Stiefel Prize, the Martin Stadtfeld Prize and the 2023 Jütting Scholarship, as well as the Boris Pergamenschikow Scholarship which was awarded to him at Kronberg Academy’s Cello Masterclasses in 2024.

Arne plays the “ex-Tortelier” cello by Charles Adolphe Maucotel (Paris, 1850), which is generously loaned to him by a member of the Stretton Society. As a prize winner of the German Musical Instruments Fund Competition, he also plays a cello by Antonio Sgarbi, on loan from the Association of Arts and Culture of the German Economy at the Federation of German Industries e.V.