Arne Zeller

Arne Zeller, a ”young exceptional artist with an extraordinary stage presence and a seemingly effortless functioning virtuosity“ (SWR Kultur, broadcasting corporation), is characterised by “a rare combination of technical sovereignty, sonority differentiation and deeply rooted musical formative power” (Hans Gál Foundation).

As the winner of the Grand Prix and the audience award of the Budapest International Cello Competition 2025 and the International Pau Casals Award 2024 he increasingly gaining national and international recognition. Recently he was admitted to the SWR Kultur New Talent program and rewarded with the Hans Gál Soloist Prize 2026.

Born in Germany in 2006, Arne Zeller was a precollege student in the class of Peter Bruns at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Leipzig from age 14. Since 2024 he studies with Frans Helmerson at Kronberg Academy. Additional artistic impulses generate from regular classes with Jens Peter Maintz since 2021 and his mentor in the Stretton xMP program, Pablo Ferrández.

Arne Zeller early develops an intensive international career as a soloist and chamber musician. Pursuing this, he collected formative experience as a junior artist at Kronberg Academy’s project ”Chamber Music Connects the World“, two seasons of the Geneva String Academy, and the soloist program of the Verbier Festival.

As soloist he performed with different orchestras like the Baden-Baden Philharmonics, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, the Kremerata Baltica, Ferenc Liszt Chamber Orchestra, or the National Philharmony Budapest. He is regular guest at the Moritzburg Festival, the Con Spirito Festival Leipzig, the Berner Seefestspiele, Nymphenburger Musiksommer, the Rheingau Musikfestival, the Engadin Festival, the Bachwoche Ansbach and the Kronberg Festival, for example.

He played with artist like Gidon Kremer, Antje Weithaas, Lawrence Power, Jens Peter Maintz, Valentin Erben, Thorleif Thedéen, or the Eliot Quartet and staged venues like the Musikverein Wien, Tonhalle Zürich, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Laeiszhalle Hamburg, Liszt Academy Budapest, Conservatoire de musique de Genève, Kennedy Center Washington, and the Casals Forum in Kronberg. 

His competition successes include the 1st prize at the International Cello Competition Anna Kull 2020 (Graz), 1st prize at the international Gustav Mahler Cello Competition 2022 (Prag) and the 2nd prize at the International Brahms Competition 2023 (Pörtschach). He is also holder of multiple 1st prizes and special prizes of the national German youth music competition „Jugend musiziert“ in solo and duo performance and was decorated by Kronberg Academy with the Pergamenschikow scholarship in 2024. Additional important decorations were the Werner Stiefel Prize 2022 (Baden-Baden), the Lichtenberger Music Prize 2022 and the Martin Stadtfeld Prize 2024. In 2025 Arne Zeller received the Scholarship of the Zukunftsinitiative Rheinland-Pfalz (ZIRP).

During his school years already, Arne Zeller repeatedly solistically staged with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony in a project to convey classical music to high school students. This nature of projects currently continues with more concerts at different social events, part of the education at Kronberg Academy.

Soloistic highlights during the 26/27 season will be performances with the Philharmonic State Orchestra Mainz, the Ensemble Symphonique de Genève, and the Hungarian National Symphony.

Since many years he has been scholar of the “Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben” and the Music Academy Liechtenstein, since 2024 also of the “Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes” und the Peter Klöckner Foundation.

Arne Zeller plays an instrument by Carlo Annibale Tononi (Venice, around 1720), a generous loan by a member of the Stretton Society. Being a laureate of the German Music Instrument Fund, he also has an Antonio Sgarbi cello to his disposition, generously provided by the Kulturkreis der deutschen Wirtschaft im BDI e.V.

Since 2024, Arne Zeller has been studying with Frans Helmerson, funded by the Dorothea Neuhaus patronage.