Biography
Arne Zeller was born in Germany in 2006. He started playing the cello at the age of six. He was initially taught by Moritz Reutlinger (Trier) and Daniel Geiss (Mainz University of Music) and when he was 14, he moved to the Felix-Mendelssohn-Bartholdy University of Music and Theater in Leipzig as a young student in the class of Professor Peter Bruns. In addition to his musical training, he attends the 12th grade at the Rabanus Maurus Gymnasium Mainz.
Arne has received additional valuable musical inspiration through masterclasses with Ulrich Voss, Ivan Monighetti, Jens Peter Maintz, Jan Vogler and Frans Helmerson. In 2022, he was selected as an active participant in the cello masterclasses at the Kronberg Academy by Professor Frans Helmerson and was awarded a scholarship. In 2022 and 2023, he was invited by Jan Vogler to the “Master Student – Master” workshop at Neuhardenberg Castle and was selected as the youngest academic for the Moritzburg Festival 2023. He gained additional valuable chamber music experience at international chamber music courses such as Musique à Flaine in France in 2021 and 2022 and at the Geneva String Academy in Geneva in 2023. Since 2020, he has been a scholarship holder at the Liechtenstein Music Academy, where he regularly takes part in the cello intensive weeks and concerts.
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Arne won numerous prizes at national and international competitions. Among others, he received a 3rd prize and the special prize at the “International Dotzauer Competition for Young Cellists” 2019 in Dresden, the 1st prize as the youngest participant at the “International Cello Competition Anna Kull” 2020 in Graz, a 1st prize at the “Gustav Mahler Cello Competition“ 2022 and the 2nd prize at the “29. International Brahms Competition” 2023 in Pörtschach. He was the 1stfederal prize winner at “Jugend musiziert” several times, including in 2019 and 2022 for cello solo, and in 2021 in a duo with piano. In 2021-2023, Arne was awarded 1st prizes and various special prizes for cello solo at the “Mendelsohn Competition FrankfurtRheinMain”. When he took part in the “Carl Flesch Academy”, he was awarded the “City of Baden-Baden Sponsorship Prize” in 2021 and the “Werner Boots Prize” in 2022. In the same year he received the “Lichtenberg Music Prize” for outstanding young musicians.
At the age of 13, Arne made his debut as a soloist with the Rococo Variations by Tchaikovsky with the Sinfonietta Worms. This was followed in 2022 and 2023 by several appearances with the Philharmonie Baden-Baden. In 2023, he also appeared as a soloist with the HR Symphony Orchestra on the HR school tour, the Mainz University Orchestra and the Euro Symphony Orchestra SFK. Since 2021, Arne has been a member of the award-winning international string ensemble LGT Young Soloists, with which he has since been able to gain stage experience worldwide both as a soloist and in an ensemble.
His concert activities took Arne to special venues such as the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Vienna Musikverein, the Kurhaus Baden-Baden, the Elbphilharmonie, the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, the Alte Oper Frankfurt and the Casals Forum Kronberg, as well as to various festivals such as the Heidelberg Spring, the Northern Lights Festival in Tromsø, the Herrenchiemsee Festival, the Moritzburg Festival and the Rheingau Music Festival.
Arne has been supported as a scholarship holder by the German Music Life Foundation since 2019, was an academic at the International Music Academy Berlin from 2020 to 2022 and has been supported by the Friends of Young Musicians Mainz/Wiesbaden since the beginning of 2023.
Arne plays a cello by Charles Maucotel ex-Tortelier (1850), generously loaned to him by a member of the Stretton Society.