Born in Germany in 2006, Arne Zeller began playing the cello at the age of six. He was taught between the ages of 11 and 14 at the Mainz University of Music and then, as a young student, he switched to the Felix-Mendelssohn-Bartholdy University of Music and Theater in Leipzig in Professor Peter Bruns' class.
Arne received additional musical impulses from master classes with Prof. Christoph Richter, Prof. Peter Bruns, Prof. Ivan Monighetti and Prof. Jens Peter Maintz. In 2022, he took part in the cello masterclasses at Kronberg Academy and was selected by Prof. Frans Helmerson as an active participant and awarded a scholarship. He is also a scholarship holder at the International Music Academy in Liechtenstein and takes part in the intensive weeks there.
At the "Jugend musiziert" competition, Arne received several 1st national prizes, for the first time at the age of twelve and again in 2022 in the solo cello category, and in 2021 also in a duo with piano. In 2021 and 2022, he was also awarded a 1stprize for cello solo and various special prizes at the "Mendelssohn Competition FrankfurtRheinMain". On an international level, Arne received a 3rd prize and the special prize at the "International Dotzauer Competition for Young Cellists" in Dresden in 2019. As the youngest participant in his age group, he won the 1st prize at the "International Anna Kull Competition" in Graz in 2020. During the following pandemic years, he was a prizewinner at various international online competitions. Most recently, he received the 1st prize in his age group and a special prize across categories at the international "Gustav-Mahler Cello Competition 2022". In 2021, Arne was awarded the sponsorship prize of the city of Baden-Baden as part of the Carl Flesch Academy, and in 2022, at the same place, with the "Werner Stiefel Prize", combined with a concert with the Baden-Baden Philharmonic. In 2022 he also received the "Lichtenberger Music Prize" for young musicians from the Herfried Apel Music Foundation.
Arne made his debut at the age of 13 with Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations and has had various solo performances with the LGT Young Soloists since 2021, including at the Tonhalle Zürich, the Casino Bern and in 2022 at the opening concert of the Heidelberg Spring Festival. Also in 2022, he appeared with the Baden-Baden Philharmonic with the Cello Concerto by E.W. Korngold performed under the direction of Pavel Baleff and played at an anniversary concert of the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben with other scholarship holders in the Great Hall of the Elbphilharmonie. As a special prize winner of the Mendelssohn Competition FrankfurtRheinMain 2022, he will appear as a soloist with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra in spring 2023.
Regular solo auditions, e.g. in the Konzerthaus Berlin, the town hall in Vaduz or in the Goethehaus Frankfurt and most recently at the personal invitation of Jan Vogler in a concert with the 6 Bach suites as part of the series Master Student-Master of the Neuhardenberg Castle Foundation, complement his stage experience.
Appearances as a member of the National Youth Orchestra took place under important conductors on the stages of the Berlin Philharmonic, the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden or La Seine Musicale, Paris.
Arne has been supported by the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben as a scholarship holder since 2019 and as an academic by the Internationale Musikakademie Berlin since 2020.
As the winner of the 29th competition of the German Musical Instrument Fund in 2022, he plays a French cello by Georges Chanot I from 1840 that is owned by the federal government. In addition, he recently received the Charles Maucotel ex-Tortelier (1850) on generous loan from Jebsen & Jessen and the Stretton Society.