Biographies

Students selected for the 2024 edition

Alphabetical order per instrument - Nationality as a country - Last school

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Arne ZELLER

Arne ZELLER

  • Edition of the Academy: 2024, 2023
  • Nationality: Germany
  • Instrument: Cello
  • Age during Academy: 17
  • Last or current school: Felix Mendelssohn College of Music and Theatre - Leipzig
  • https://www.hmt-leipzig.de/en/home/hochschule
  • First prize of the International Anna Kull Competition for Cello in Graz in 2020 as the youngest contestant in his age group. In 2022 first prize of his age group at the International Gustav-Mahler Cello Competition.

Arne started playing the cello at the age of six. He was initially educated by Moritz Reutlinger (Trier) and Daniel Geiss (Department of Music at Mainz University), and aged 14 changed to the gifted student class of Professor Peter Bruns at the "Hochschule für Musik und Theater Felix-Mendelssohn-Bartholdy" Leipzig. Additional artistic impulses came from masterclasses with Ivan Monighetti, Hans Jørgen Jensen, Jens Peter Maintz, Troels Svane, Jan Vogler and Frans Helmerson. Aside his musical education he attends the final class of high school in Mainz.

He early became award winner in national and international competitions: he received the first prize of the International Anna Kull Competition for Cello in Graz in 2020 as the youngest contestant in his age group. In 2022 he won the single first prize of his age group at the International Gustav-Mahler Cello Competition, a third prize and a special prize at the International Dotzauer Competition for young cellists in 2019 and the second prize at the 29. international Brahms Competition 2023 (Pörtschach). Arne was awarded numerous first national prizes in the federal German competition "Jugend musiziert in the categories Cello solo and chamber music.

In 2021 he participated in the chamber music project "Mit Musik miteinander" at Kronberg Academy, where in 2022 he was chosen as an active participant of the cello masterclasses by Professor Helmerson and will continue as a Junior in "Chamber Music Connects the World" this year.

In 2022 and 2023, on personal invitation of Jan Vogler, Arne participated in the workshops "Meisterschüler-Meister" of the Schloss Neuhardenberg Foundation and in 2023 as the youngest academist of the Moritzburg Festival. Additional valuable chamber music experience he gained in 2021 and 2022 at "Musique à Flaine" in northern France and in 2023 at the "Geneva International String Academy".

Arne debuted with Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations at 13 years of age with the Sinfonietta Worms. In summer and autumn of 2022 and in 2023 various performances of the cello concerto by E.W. Korngold together with the Baden-Baden Philharmonics followed, 2023 he also soloed with the hr-Symphony Orchestra at the hr-Schultour, with the University Orchestra Mainz and the Euro Symphony Orchestra (SFK). 2024 he played Haydn’s C-Major Cello concerto together with the MainKammerOrchester. Since 2021 Arne is a member of the international string ensemble "LGT Young Soloists" together with whom he gained stage experience in concerts worldwide.

His concert activities lead Arne to special places like the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Musikverein Vienna, the Kurhaus Baden-Baden, the Elbphilharmonie and the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, the Alte Oper Frankfurt and the Casals Forum in Kronberg. He also played at different Festivals like Heidelberger Frühling, Northern Lights Festival in Tromsø, the Herrenchiemsee Festspiele, the Moritzburgfestival and the Rheingau Musik Festival.

Arne holds scholarships of the "Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben", the International Music Academy Liechtenstein, the Schloss Neuhardenberg Foundation, and the Hans und Eugenia Jütting Foundation and is supported by the "Freunde junger Musiker Mainz/Wiesbaden".

He was decorated with the "Baden-Baden Funding Prize" in 2021 and the "Werner-Stiefel-Prize" Baden-Baden in 2022, and he was also the recipient of the biannual "Lichtenberger Musikpreis 2022" of the Herfried Apel Foundation for exceptional young artists, and recently the Martin Stadtfeld prize by the "Freunde junger Musiker Mainz/Wiesbaden".

Arne is an enthusiastic young musician whose cello play reflects naturality and authenticity, virtuosity, a high musical intelligence, and an extraordinary ability to form sound. Being open minded, he likes to connect with all forms of music and enjoys working with musicians of every background and nationality. 

Arne ZELLER

 

 

Concert 2021 at the E. Fitzgerald theatre
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29 June to 7 July 2024 !

 

 

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