Tuesday 4 July 2023 | 20h00
Société de Lecture
SUMMER SEASON 2023
Brahms · Grieg · Wieniawski · Schumann
Tuesday 4 July 2023 · 20h00
Société de Lecture
Grand-Rue 11, 1204 Genève

PROGRAMMEARTISTS AND BIOGRAPHIES
PROGRAMME
Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897)
Cello Sonata No. 2 in F major, Op. 99
Edvard Grieg (1843 - 1907)
Violin Sonata No. 3 in C minor, Op. 45 (transcribed for viola)
Brian Isaacs · violaHunju Sohnn · pianoNaama Ben-Zaken · violinLukáš Klánský · piano
Henryk Wieniawski (1835 - 1880)
Fantaisie brillante on Gounod's “Faust”, Op. 20
Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856)
Piano Quintet in E-flat major, Op. 44
Sofija Dodig · violin 1Vasilisa Neliubina · violin 2Leonardo Jelveh · violaPeter Bruns · celloAnnegret Kuttner · piano
THE ARTISTS
TEACHERS, GUESTS OF HONOR AND ACCOMPANYING PIANISTS
Peter BrunsCello · guest professor at GISA since 2021Read the biography ›
This is one of the best CD recordings of the year – perhaps of the decade […]. Here we encounter the closest we have witnessed […] to a new Casals.”
(Early Music Review on the CD recording of J.S. Bach’s 6 Suites for Solo Cello)
“Peter Bruns does what he does best on his Tononi cello from 1730: he declaims, just like Pablo Casals, who also used to own the instrument. Peter Bruns once confirmed the closeness to Casals, saying: ‘I also try to speak with the instrument.’”
(Maja Ellmenreich in Deutschlandradio Cologne)
The cellist Peter Bruns has established an excellent reputation in the international music world as one of Germany’s leading cellists. Born in Berlin, he studied with Professor Peter Vogler at Berlin’s “Hanns Eisler” Academy of Music.
Peter Bruns has performed as soloist and chamber musician in renowned concert halls throughout all continents, including the Berliner Philharmonie, the Carnegie Hall in New York, the Wigmore Hall in London, concert halls in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Seoul, in the Semperoper Dresden, in the Leipziger Gewandhaus as well as at the most important festivals including the Kuhmo, Bergen, Berlin and Dresden Music Festivals, the Budapest Spring Festival, the Seoul Spring Festival and Gidon Kremer’s Lockenhaus festival.
The artist has also performed as soloist with many major orchestras and has toured with the Staatskapelle Dresden as well as with the RAI, MDR and Berlin symphony orchestras. He has collaborated with conductors such as Giuseppe Sinopoli, Eliahu Inbal, Gianandrea Noseda, Christoph Prick, Marc Albrecht and Bruno Weil.
His fascination with the ancient language of music and the instrumentation of the various stylistic periods has led to close collaboration with renowned orchestras in this field, in particular with the “Akademie für Alte Musik” Berlin, with whom Peter Bruns has played for CD productions, concerts and festivals (Bergen, Brügge, Berlin, Regensburg, Köthen).
From 1993-2000, Peter Bruns was Artistic Director of the Moritzburg Festival. From 1998 to 2005, he was Professor for Cello at the Dresden School of Music and, since 2005, has held the same position at the Academy of Music in Leipzig.
Master classes led Peter Bruns to many German cities as well as to London, New York, France, Sweden and Australia.
Developing also a career as conductor, Peter Bruns is the Artistic Director of the Mendelssohn Kammerorchester Leipzig since 2014, and performs regularly in its own concert series in the Gewandhaus Leipzig as well as on tours.
Peter Bruns has recorded a series of award winning CDs including Brahms’s Cello Sonatas, Bach’s Six Suites for Cello Solo, the works of Gabriel Fauré, Ernest Bloch, Charles Koechlin and Robert Schumann, a recording of a Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach concert which won the Cannes Classical Award for “Best CD of the Year”, Antonin Dvorak’s works for cello and orchestra with the Staatskapelle Dresden and his highly acclaimed recordings of Haydn’s, Schumann’s and Volkmann’s Cello Concertos with the Mendelssohn Kammerorchester Leipzig.
Peter Bruns plays on a cello from Carlo Tononi, Venice 1730, which was once owned by Pablo Casals.
Annegret KuttnerCollaborative pianist for cellistsRead the biography ›
“Annegret Kuttner’s playing is characterised by considerable professionalism and perfection, by her contagious electrifying joy in performing music and by the great stylistic sureness of her interpretation.”
Sächsische Zeitung
„...Kuttner's ... light-fingered playing was impressive for its airy clarity..."
Irish Times
Pianist Annegret Kuttner impresses the audience with the naturalness of her interpretation and the lightness and clarity of her playing.
After successfully participating in the Robert Schumann Piano Competition in Zwickau, Annegret has performed already at the age of 16 as a soloist in concerts in Germany and other European countries, including with the European Union Youth Orchestra. She completed her piano studies at the Dresden Academy of Music with Professor Peter Rösel, and received further musical impetus from masterclasses with Karl-Heinz Kämmerling, Pavel Gililov and Amadeus Webersinke. Annegret augmented her training with postgraduate studies on piano accompaniment (as a répétiteur) with Professor Monika Raithel as well as studying harpsichord with the internationally renowned expert on ancient music, Professor Ludger Remy.
Annegret Kuttner now teaches at the Academy of Music and Theatre, Leipzig.
In addition to her teaching post, the highly sought-after pianist regularly performs as a soloist and chamber musician in diverse musical and cultural centres in Germany and abroad.
Concert tours have taken her to the Czech Republic, Poland, Switzerland, Turkey, Latvia, Ireland, South Africa and the USA.
Annegret performs regularly with Benjamin Schmid, Antje Weithaas, Natalia Prishepenko, Pauline Sachse, Ivan Zenaty and Robert Oberaigner. In New York, she played Beethoven’s complete works for cello and piano together with cellist Peter Bruns. This concert was extremely well received by the public and press alike (New York Sun). Various internationally acclaimed CD recordings are released, including works for cello and piano by Louis Vierne and Charles-Marie Widor, by Robert Schumann and Robert Volkmann as well as for the Beethoven anniversary in 2020 together with Peter Bruns/cello the cycle "Beethoven – Most Complete 1-3“, expanding his known repertoire of five cello sonatas and three sets of variations with another three sonatas and arrangements by Beethoven himself and by composers from his context, for instance the sonata op. 64 (!) and the "Kreutzer“- sonata arrangement for cello by Carl Czerny.
HunJu SohnnCollaborative pianist for violistsRead the biography ›
HunJu Sohnn, Korean born pianist, has been performing both solo and chamber music concerts in Switzerland, England, Germany, France, South Korea, Thailand, Costa Rica, as well as throughout the United States.
Highly appreciated for her qualities in collaborative work, HunJu has been invited to appear with various instrumentalists and performed with the wind ensemble Ensemble Five ±, as well as the European-based Varias Ensemble at the New Year’s Music Festival in Gstaad, Switzerland. HunJu has collaborated in masterclasses for world-famous artists such as Pinkas Zukerman, Nobuko Imai, Kyung-Wha Chung, Tabea Zimmermann, Yuri Bashmet, as well as Yo-Yo Ma, Franz Helmerson, and Ralph Kirshbaum. She has been the pianist/coordinator of the viola masterclass at the Verbier Music Festival and Academy. HunJu has participated in a television documentary featuring Nobuko Imai, which was distributed worldwide and performed with Ms. Imai for France Musique Radio program during the Verbier Festival.
HunJu Sohnn continues to perform in Europe and the US, while holding a teaching position at the Conservatoire Populaire de Musique Danse et Théâtre in Geneva. She also participated in studio recordings, most recently in a project of complete works for piano and winds by Francis Poulenc released by Kleos Classics. HunJu Sohnn received her Master's degree from New England Conservatory and holds a Doctoral degree for Piano Performance from Rice University.
Lukáš KlánskýCollaborative pianist for violinistsRead the biography ›
Lukáš Klánský was born in Prague in 1989. As a winner of numerous competitions he has become a sought after soloist and chamber music player. He is a member of the successful Lobkowicz Trio which won the International Johannes Brahms Competition in Pörtschach, Austria, in 2014. He won the second prize at the Hans von Bülow International Competition 2018 in the conducting from piano category. He regularly performs with violinist Jan Mráček, winner of Fritz Kresiler competition 2014 and concert master of Czech Philharmonic orchestra.
Lukáš Klánský performs with leading Czech orchestras under the baton of conductors such as Libor Pešek, Andrea Sebastian Weiser, Gundi Emilsson or Istvan Denes. He has played at the Prague Spring Festival, Feasts of Music with Václav Hudeček, Talich’s Beroun Festival, Prague Dvořák´s Festival, Festival Lago Maggiore, the Mendelssohn Musikwoche Wengen, Chopin Marathon Darmstadt, the Nafplion festival, Il Timbro Ivrea, Basel’s Kammermusik um halb acht, to name but a few.
He is a laureate of many national as well as international competitions: Hradec Beethoven Competition, the International Rotary Piano Competition 2012 and the Darmstadt International Chopin Competition 2013. At the age of fifteen he made his debut in the Dvorak Hall in Prague with the Prague Chamber Orchestra playing Mozart’s F Major concerto K459.
Between 2004 – 2010 he studied at the Prague Conservatoire with Eva Boguniová, graduating with Chopin’s Piano Concerto No 2 in f minor. He finished his studies at the Academy of Performing Arts, where he studied with his father, prof. Ivan Klánský. His musical development has been influenced not only by his tutors but also by Martin Kasík and the internationally renowned Garrick Ohlsson, whose Prague masterclasses he attended.
His countless concert performances have served to introduce himself to audiences in many countries. In addition to the Czech Republic he is known in Slovakia, Hungary, Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Croatia, Slovenia, Greece, Poland, Turkey, USA and South Africa. His recordings are available on the Praga Digitals, Radioservis, Gramola and Naxos labels.
Lukáš Klánský is also conducter and gives concerts conducting Mozart and Beethoven Piano concerti from piano. He studied conducting with Professor Leos Svarovsky.
Lukas also cooperate with legendary czech violonist Václav Hudeček. They play concerts together and works on summer Academy for young talents in Luhačovice.
THE YOUNG ARTISTS 2023
Naama BEN-ZAKENViolinRead the biography ›
Born in 2005, Naama is currently pursuing her bachelor's degree in the class of Mrs. Miriam Fried and Mr. Paul Biss, at the New England Conservatory in Boston, USA. She studied at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music (Israel) with Mrs. Mila Feldman.
Naama played in the Young Israel Philharmonic Orchestra of the Jerusalem Music Centre, serving as concertmaster in many projects, and participated in all of its outstanding musicians programs; She performed chamber music with guidance from members of the Jerusalem Quartet and musicians of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and took part in many masterclasses with world-class violinists such as Grigory Kalinovsky, Mihaela Martin, Shlomo Mintz, the late Chaim Taub, and many others.
Naama has performed across Europe, in all major concert halls in Israel, and on national radio. She is an active member of “Musethica,” an organization bringing classical music to audiences with special needs, and in 2020 premiered a piece written especially for her by Israeli composer Eyal Malkinson.
She has been supported by the America-Israel Cultural Foundation scholarships since 2018, receiving the Outstanding Merit Scholarships. She won second prize in the “Keshet Eran” competition (2023), first prize in the Strings Department Competition at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music (2024) and in 2025 she received the Claremont Prize, granted to a single violinist by the Claremont Foundation.
Naama has performed in concerts under conductors such as Lahav Shani, Karl-Heinz Steffens and Zubin Mehta.
Her activities in international music festivals, include the Geneva International Strings Academy (Switzerland), Keshet Eilon seminars, which she has attended regularly since age ten, to name a few. She has been an active participant at the Kronberg Academy "Good Vibrations" Festival and performed in masterclasses with Vadim Gluzman.
As the founder of her chamber group, Alma Rosé piano quartet, she performed at the Zeist Music Days Festival in the Netherlands, and worked with members of the Jerusalem Quartet and the Schumann Quartet (Germany). The quartet also toured London, played many concerts and worked with pianist Murray Perahia.
Naama plays a 1770 Nicolaus Gagliano violin, generously on loan from the late Yehuda Zisapel.
Eliane MENZELViolinRead the biography ›
Eliane Menzel was born in Germany in 1999. She was a pre college student of Prof. Katrin Scholz at the Academy of Arts Bremen from 2008 - 2017. In addition to winning several first prizes at the national competition Jugend musiziert between 2007 and 2016, she was awarded special prizes for outstanding musical achievements (donation of Jugend musiziert 2007 and donation of the Oldenburgische Landschaft 2011).
Eliane was a member of the German Youth String Orchestra Deutsche Streicher philharmonie from 2011 to 2018, in which she performed in well-known concert halls throughout Germany and Europe. From 2014-2018 she served as concertmaster on tours, CD productions and broadcasts such as Young Euro Classics in the Konzerthaus Berlin. This concert, broadcast via livestream, showed Eliane Menzel also as soloist in the encore, the last movement of Vivaldi's Summer.
In 2015 she was awarded the NDR Kulturpreis, which included a broadcast production of S.Saens: Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso at NDR Hamburg (transmitted in July 2016). In 2016, Eliane won 1st prize at the VIII. International competition Szymon Goldberg Meißen as well as a special prize for the modern piece and a performance at the festival Schubertiade Schnackenburg. Eliane Menzel took part in summer festivals such as Castleman Quartet Program 2018, Heifetz International Music Institute 2019 in Staunton, VA, Young Artists Program in 2017, 2018 and 2019, the Keshet Eilon Summer Master Course 2021 and 2022 as well as the Allegra Festival 2021 in Ruse, Bulgaria. She has taken part in masterclasses with Thomas Brandis, Rainer Honeck, Rachel Podger, Igor Ozim, Silvia Marcovici, Rainer Sonne, Andrés Cárdenes, Hagai Shaham, Pinchas Zukerman, Patinka Kopec, Grigory Kalinovsky, Ilya Kaler, Shmuel Ashkenazy, Itzhak Rashkovsky and Vadim Gluzman.
As a soloist Eliane Menzel has performed with orchestras such as the Oldenburger Schloss orchester, Kammersinfonie Oldenburg, Main Kammer orchester Frankfurt, the Ensemble Bremen-Frankfurt and the Oldenburg State Orchestra. In February 2017, Eliane performed the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in the sold-out concert halls of Emmen and Groningen (Netherlands) and at Die Glocke Bremen. She was accompanied by the Hanze Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Etienne Siebens.
In 2019 she performed in a recital at the German Embassy in Ottawa as well as in the German Embassy in New York in December 2019. Together with her father, oboist Prof. Fabian Menzel, she regularly gives chamber music concerts, presenting music from baroque to modern style, including world premieres of Compositions written for Eliane and Fabian Menzel. In 2017 they started their own concert series in the Castle of Neuenburg with numerous performances every year. With the start of the pandemic they started to livestream the concerts.
Eliane studied at the Manhattan School of Music from 2018 - 2022 and was part of the "Pinchas Zukerman Performance Program" with Pinchas Zukerman and Patinka Kopec. She graduated in 2022 with a Bachelor of Music, she is now continuing her studies at the Juilliard School with Joel Smirnoff.
Sofija DODIGViolinRead the biography ›
Sofija Dodig is a Serbian violinist born on August 30th 2005 in Belgrade. At the age of 17, she became the youngest finalist in the history of International Jeunesses Musicales Violin Competition in Belgrade and won the 5th prize, and the special prize for the best domestic candidate.
Sofija has been playing the violin since the age of 7 and firstly started studying with Professor Jelena Komatina in Belgrade. At the age of 10, she started studying with Professor Ana Veskov, and studied with her till the age of 17 in Belgrade. When she was 16, she enrolled University for Music and Performing Arts in Graz in the preparatory class of Professor Emilio Percan where she then studied for the next 3 year.. She has also been studying privately with Professor Brian Finlayson in Austria, during the years 2020 and 2021.
She has had opportunities to attend masterclasses of renowned artist and musicians such as Pavel Vernikov, Gil Shaham, Svetlana Makarova, Sergey Ostrovsky, Mihaela Martin, Kirill Troussov,, Brian Finlayson, Daniel Rowland, Boris Kuschnir, Grigory Kalinovsky, Stefan Milenkovic, Nemanja Radulovic,, Kati Debretzeni,, David Bowlin, Tatyana Balashova, Savely Shalman, Igor Tkachouk, Maja Jokanovic, Robert Lakatos.
She has played chamber music with acclaimed musicians, as Peter Bruns, Daniel Rowland, Kati Debretzeni, Maja Bogdanovic, Dana Zemtsov, Nicholas Schwartz, Uki Ovaskainen. She was participant and scholarship holder of the Mozarteum Summer Academy in Salzburg, Stauffer Academy in Cremona, Davidsbündler Academy in The Hague and Geneva International String Academy in Switzerland. She was a participant of Lac Lemann Music Masterclasses in Blonay, Switzerland.
She had a chance to hold her solo recitals in Switzerland, The Netherlands, Austria, Slovenia, Macedonia and Serbia and perform in many countries around Europe. She was first on all national and international competition in Serbia, and won 3rd prize at Jeno Hubay Violin Competition in Hungary 2021 and 3rd and special prize at Ohrid Pearls Competition 2020. She was the winner of Franjo Krezma and Ludmilla Weiser Violin Competitions in Croatia 2019.
Sofija received a number of awards for her successes in music field - she is a stipendist from “Dobar glas” Foundation, which supports the best young musicians from Serbia, as well as the scholarship holder of the Fund for Young Talents of the Republic of Serbia. She has also received the “Dositeja Prize” from the Serbian Ministry of Youth and Sports.
Vasilisa NELIUBINAViolinRead the biography ›
Vasilisa Neliubina was born in Perm, Russia, into a family of musicians. At the age of 4 she started violin lessons with Tatiana Shevtsova, Honored Worker of Culture. She made her solo debut performance at the age of 7 with the Perm Opera and Ballet Symphony Orchestra. She played two years later with the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia conducted by Vladimir Spivakov.
In 2016 Vasilisa entered the Music College at Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory in the class of prof. Vladimir Ivanov and prof. Elena Chvertok. In 2020 she entered Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory in the first ranks.
Vasilisa performed as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestra musician in the Small, Grand and Rachmaninov Halls of the of the Moscow Conservatory, Pushkin Museum’s Hall in Moscow, Chamber Hall of the Moscow International House of Music, in different cities of Russia: Saint-Petersburg, Tyumen, Nizhniy Novgorod, Izhevsk, Ryazan. She played at the Victoria Hall in Geneva, Stadtcasino Basel, Temple du Bas in Neuchâtel, and participated in the International Music Festival Hellas in Greece, International Festival of Slavic Music, Summer Academy “New Names”, Third Practicum for Performing Contemporary Arts in Russia.
Vasilisa took part in masterclasses with Eduard Grach (Russia), Maxim Fedotov (Russia), Boris Kushnir (Austria), Yair Kless (Israel), Lev Gelbard (Germany).
She is a laureate and prize winner of several competitions: 2021 1st prize of the Delphic Games of Russia, 2021 1st prize of the All-Russian Violin Competition named after the Honored Art Worker of the Russian Federation G.S. Turchaninova, 2021 2nd prize of the All-Russian Violin Competition “Magic bow”, 2nd prize of the International Violin Competition Josef Hassid in Estony.
Vasilisa is currently studying at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Genève/Neuchâtel in Switzerland with Sergey Ostrovsky.
She plays an1880 Samuel Nemessanyi violin lent by the LaLive Foundation.
Brian ISAACSViolaRead the biography ›
Brian Isaacs, 23, grew up in Queens, New York City and started playing the violin at age four. After switching to viola in 2014 and graduating from LaGuardia High School in 2018, Brian began his studies at Yale University, where he received his B.A. cum laude in Sociology with Distinction in the Major, and his M.M. in Viola Performance as a student of Ettore Causa. Starting September 2023, Brian will be based in Berlin as a member of the Karajan-Akademie der Berliner Philharmoniker.
An aspiring viola soloist, Brian most recently won both the Yale School of Music Woolsey Hall and Yale College William Waite Concerto Competitions. As a result, he performed the Walton Viola Concerto with the Yale Symphony Orchestra in April 2022, conducted by William Boughton, and will return to New Haven in April 2024 to perform the Martinu Rhapsody-Concerto with the Yale Philharmonia, conducted by Peter Oundjian. Brian was one of eight semi-finalists at the 2021 Primrose International Viola Competition, a semi-finalist at the 2022 Kodaly International Music Competition, and a prizewinner in the 2019 Anton Rubinstein International Viola Competition. At Yale, he has also received the Wrexham Prize in Music, “awarded annually to that senior who, as a performer, has best exemplified the standards of Quincy Porter”, the Joseph Lentilhon Selden Memorial Award, given “to students especially notable for their contribution in the field of music” as well as the Terry E. and Irene A. Sharp Prize, awarded “to the most outstanding performer in the junior class in recognition of their fine musicianship and potential in the field of classical music”. He has performed as a soloist in masterclasses for artists including Misha Amory, Yuri Bashmet, Noemie Bialobroda, Alfred Brendel, Isabel Charisius, Nobuko Imai, Jeffrey Irvine, Lawrence Power, Thomas Riebl, Nadia Sirota & Nico Muhly, Steve Tenenbom, and Lars Anders Tomter. His pre-college teachers include Barbera Berg, Molly Carr, Caeli Smith, and Jonathan Weber.
Brian has been fortunate to perform chamber music around the world with remarkable musicians. Most recently, he traveled to South Korea in September 2022 for chamber music concerts in Seoul, Gimhae, and Heyri. Brian participated in numerous chamber music festivals in the summer of 2022, including the Viridian Strings (USA), NUME Festival and Academy (Italy), Geneva International String Academy (Switzerland), Verbier Festival Academy (Switzerland), Moritzburg Festival Academy (Germany), and Thy Chamber Music Festival (Denmark). He has performed with distinguished artists including Peter Bruns, Jose Gallardo, Annette von Hehn, Mihae Lee, Mi-kyung Lee, and Tony Nys. In previous summers, Brian attended the Taos School of Music, Maine Chamber Music Seminar, and NEXT Festival of Emerging Artists. At Taos, Brian received numerous chamber coachings from Misha Amory, Robert McDonald, Mai Motobuchi, Nicholas Tzavaras, and additional members of the Borromeo, Brentano, and Shanghai string quartets. He has performed in chamber music masterclasses for artists such as Simone Dinnerstein, Augustin Dumay, Lynn Harrell, Mathieu Herzog, Joel Krosnick, Michaela Martin, Fred Sherry, Gabor Takacs-Nagy, and Roger Tapping. Brian has been coached at Yale by Melvin Chen, Nina Lee, Don Palma, Wendy Sharp, Mark Steinberg, and members of the Omer and Rolston string quartets.
An avid orchestral musician, Brian joined the viola section of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra in 2019 as its youngest member and gained tenure in 2021. He has served as principal violist with several renowned youth/university orchestras including NYO-USA, in which he participated in concert tours across Asia and Europe, the Moritzburg Festival Orchestra, New York Youth Symphony, Yale Philharmonia, and Yale Symphony Orchestra. In addition, Brian attended the 2018 and 2019 New York String Orchestra Seminars and the 2020 Detroit Symphony Orchestra Summer Institute. As a member of the Karajan Academy, he will participate in the viola section of the Berlin Philharmonic for numerous performances over the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons.
This summer, Brian looks forward to returning to the Viridian Strings, Geneva International String Academy, and Verbier Festival Academy and participating for the first time in the Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival and Gstaad Menuhin Festival String Academy. Brian plays on a 2011 Douglas Cox viola, on generous loan from the Virtu Foundation.
Leonardo JELVEHViolaRead the biography ›
Originally from Padova, Italy, Leonardo Jelveh studied viola at the Cesare Pollini Conservatory of Music in Padova in the class of Fabrizio Scalabrin and graduated with honors in 2016.
At the age of 14, he took part in masterclasses and concerts at the International Orchestra Institute Attergau in Salzburg. From 2013 to 2015, he completed his training by attending the Internationale Sommerakademie in Bad Leonfelden, Austria with Thomas Riebl, and in 2015 he joined the European Union Youth Orchestra as a member of the Leverhulme Summer School in Austria. He obtained his Bachelor's degree in viola in 2021 at the Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg, where he worked with Wolfram Christ. In September 2021 he entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse in Paris in the class of Jean Sulem.
He has won numerous awards at international competitions, such as first prize at the 7th International Salieri Competition in Legnago, first prize at the 7th International Premio Crescendo Competition in Florence and first prize at the International Contea di Treviso Competition in 2016. He also placed second at the prestigious Francesco Geminiani International Competition in Verona.
From 2016 to 2019, he performed in the main European festivals and theaters with the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, the La Fenice Orchestra of Venice or the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 2021 he has participated in the Academy of the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra and since 2022 he’s a member of the Academy of the Opéra National de Paris.
Arne ZELLERCelloRead the biography ›
Arne Zeller, born 4th October 2006, started playing the cello at the age of six and joined the class of Peter Bruns at the HMT Leipzig as a junior student aged 14. Since October 2024 he is a bachelor student in the class of Frans Helmerson at Kronberg Academy. Regular masterclasses with Jens Peter Maintz have been contributing additional important artistic impulses since 2021.
Being the winner of the Grand Prix and audience prize of the Budapest International Cello Competition 2025 and the first prize (ex aequo) of the International Pau Casals Award 2024, he is increasingly gaining international attention.
Further important awards in his career were the first prize of the International Anna Kull Cello Competition (Graz, 2020), the first prize of the International Mahler Cellocompetition 2022 and the second prize at the 29. International Brahms Competition (Pörtschach 2023). He also is an awardee of numerous first national prizes and special prizes of the federal German competition „Jugend musiziert” in the categories Cello solo and chamber music and is since 2024 the current holder of the Pergamenschikow Scholarship of Kronberg Academy.
Arne debuted with Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations at 13 years of age, soloistic performances followed with the Baden-Baden Philharmonics, the Euro Symphony Orchestra, Kremerata Baltica, the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra and the National Philharmonics Budapest with works by Korngold, Dvorak, Shostakovich, Boccherini, Haydn, and Weinberg. In 2023 he repeatedly soloed with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra at the “hr-schooltour”, and the University Orchestra Mainz to relate classical music to school students. During his studies at Kronberg Academy he is also regularly involved in concerts targeting social involvement issues.
In addition to his performances as a soloist, Arne Zeller regularly plays public concerts in varying chamber music formations, for example at the Moritzburg Festival, the Heidelberger Frühling, the Con Spirito Festival Leipzig, the Rheingau Musik Festival, the Nymphenburger Sommer, the Bachwoche Ansbach, the Berner Seefestspiele, and the Kronberg Festival.
Particularly formative experiences in chamber music he experienced as junior artist at “Chamber Music Connects the World” at Kronberg, at the Geneva International String Academy, the Henle Chamber Music Academy, and the soloist program of the Verbier Festival. In this context he was privileged to already perform together with artists like Gidon Kremer, Antje Weithaas, Sergey Ostrovsky, Noémie Bialobroda, Lawrence Power, Valentin Erben and Steven Isserliss.
He played at venues like the Musikverein Wien, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Laeiszhalle Hamburg, the Liszt Academy Budapest, in the Conservatoire de musique de Genève and the Casals Forum Kronberg.
Other important impulses were set through masterclasses with Ivan Monighetti, Hans Jørgen Jensen, Jan Vogler, Gary Hoffman and Steven Isserlis as well as Sir Andras Schiff, Gidon Kremer and Martin Helmchen.
Arne Zeller holds scholarships by the „Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes“, the „Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben”, the International Music Academy Liechtenstein and the Villa Musica Rhineland-Palatinate. He receives funding by the Peter-Klöckner Stiftung and was awarded the Martin-Stadtfeld-Prize, the Werner Stiefel Prize Baden-Baden, and the Lichtenberger Musikpreis.
He is kindly supplied with the Charles Maucotel cello „ex-Tortelier“ (1850), courtesy of a member of the Stretton Society, which also strongly supports him through the “Stretton Exellence Membership Programm” since 2024.
In 2026 Arne Zeller has scheduled concerts as a soloist and as a chamber musician in Germany, Hungary, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Greece, Romania, Spain and Japan.
THE CONCERTS
TUESDAY 4 JULY · 20H00
Société de Lecture
Brahms · Grieg · Wieniawski · Schumann
This concert
WEDNESDAY 5 JULY · 9H00
Société de Lecture
Baroque music masterclasses with Kati Debretzeni
WEDNESDAY 5 JULY · 20H00
Société de Lecture
Beethoven · Schumann · Shostakovich · Bach
THURSDAY 6 JULY · 20H00
Museum Barbier-Mueller
Ysaÿe · Hindemith · Bacewicz · Paganini · Berio · Bach · Vasks · Kodály
FRIDAY 7 JULY · 9H00
Conservatoire Populaire, Studio Gabriele de Agostini
Masterclasses and workshops with Garth Knox
SATURDAY 8 JULY · 20H00
Société de Lecture
Fauré · Wieniawski · Mendelssohn · Prokofiev · Mozart
SUNDAY 9 JULY · 17H00
Société de Lecture
Beethoven · Tchaikovsky · Arensky · Saint-Saëns · Brahms

