Arne Zeller (born October 4th, 2006) started playing the cello at the age of six and became member of the precollege class of Professor Peter Bruns at the “Hochschule für Musik und Theater Felix Mendelssohn Barthold Leipzig while continuing high school. After having graduated from there in 2024, he studies with Frans Helmerson at Kronberg Academy. His studies are enabled by the Dorothea Neuhaus patronage. Additional valuable artistic impulses come from regular masterclasses with Jens Peter Maintz.

He received numerous awards and prizes, e.g. the first prize of the International Anna Kull cello competition in Graz in 2020, the first prize at the International Gustav Mahler Cello Competition 2022 in Prague, the second prize at the 29th international Brahms Competition 2023 (Pörtschach), and the first prize of the 40th Pablo Casals Award 2024 in El Vendrell. In addition, Arne was awarded numerous first national prizes and special prizes in the federal German competition “Jugend musiziert”. 

In 2022 and 2024 Arne was active participant in the cello masterclasses at Kronberg Academy, where he was also elected as junior for “Chamber Music Connects the World” in 2024. Additional valuable chamber music experience he gained at international chamber music classes like the “Geneva String Academy”, the Henle Chamber Music Academy and the soloists program of the the Verbier Festival academy. He also was academist at the Moritzburg Festival and the Con Spirito Festival Leipzig.

During his concert activities he had the privilege to join the stage with artists like Gidon Kremer, Lawrence Power, Jens-Peter Maintz, Peter Bruns, Valentin Erben, Noémie Bialobroda, Sergey Ostrovsky, Jan Vogler und Torleif Thedéen, Tobias Feldmann, and the Eliot Quartett.

Arne debuted as a soloist with orchestra with Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations at 13 years, performances with the Baden-Baden Philharmonics, the Euro Symphony Orchestra, the MainKammerOrchester and the Kremarata Baltica followed. 2024 he also soloed with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra for several times during a project for schools of regular and of special needs education. In the same year he played as a soloist with the University Orchestra Mainz in front of 2000 elementary school students at the “Alte Oper” Frankfurt under the direction of Felix Koch.

From 2021 to 2024 Arne was member of the internationally acclaimed string ensemble “LGT Young Soloists”, gaining stage experience in ensemble and soloistic performance during concerts worldwide. Additional artistic impulses came from Ivan Monighetti, Hans Jørgen Jensen, Jan Vogler, Gary Hoffman, Steven Isserliss, Sir Andras Schiff and Martin Helmchen. In September 2024 joining of the Stretton Excellence Mentorship Program (Stretton xmp) including individual lessons with Pablo Ferrández.

Since October 2024 Arne, the violinist Leonhard Baumgartner and the pianist Simon Haje, form a piano trio which will undertake an international concert tour in 2025, supported by the Music Academy Liechtenstein.

Arne Zeller holds scholarships of the “Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben”, the International Music Academy Liechtenstein, and the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes. He receives sponsorships by the Peter-Klöckner- Stiftung and is supported by the „Freunde junger Musiker Mainz/Wiesbaden“.

Additional important decorations have been the Lichtenberger Musikpreis 2022, the Werner Stiefel Preis 2022, the Martin Stadtfeld Prize, and the Jütting Scholarship 2023 as well as the Pergamenschikow Scholarship at the Kronberg Academy‘s 2024 cello master classes.

Arne plays a violoncello by Charles Adolphe Maucotel, Paris 1850, known as the “ex Paul Tortelier”, a generous loan by a member of the Stretton Society.