Arne-Christian Pelz is a Virtuosi of Houston alumni and prominent German classical cellist who serves as the First Principal Cellist (Erster Solocellist) of the Deutsche Oper Berlin. He is highly regarded both for his orchestral leadership and his active, cross-disciplinary chamber music collaborations. He joined the established German string trio, Trio Lirico in July 2025 as its cellist, performing alongside violinist Franziska Pietsch and violist Atilla Aldemir. At the age of 25, he was appointed principal cellist of the Symphoniker Hamburg under Sir Jeffrey Tate.

Born in Rostock, Germany in 1986, Pelz first came to Houston as a Rotary International Exchange Student in 2003. While attending HSPVA he won the school’s concerto competition, and as a proud member of Virtuosi of Houston he won the string division of Virtuosi’s 2004 Concerto Competition. That spring he performed Haydn’s Cello Concerto in D Major as the featured string soloist under the baton of Maestro Grabiec at the Virtuosi of Houston Concerto Concert in the Hobby Center. He has credited his experiences with the Virtuosi of Houston Young Artists Chamber Orchestra as crucial to his later artistic development.

After studying with Josef Schwab at the Hanns Eisler music conservatory in Berlin, Pelz completed his artist diploma under the tutelage of Peter Bruns at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy School in Leipzig, finishing at the top of his class.

His early successes in international competitions led to solo appearances and recitals in renowned concert halls throughout Europe and the United States, accompanied by orchestras such as the Hamburg Symphony, the Plauen-Zwickau Philharmonic, the Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra, and the Leipzig Symphony Orchestra. Pelz has a special passion for the music of the 20th and 21st centuries, and was the featured soloist with the Hamburg Symphony in Sofia Gubaidulina’s Seven Last Words. In 2009 he was awarded the Ethel Shein Prize for Best Interpretation of a Work from the 20th Century at the Premio Vittorio Gui Competition in Florence. A refined interpreter of early music as well, he received an award at the International J.S. Bach Competition in 2009 and was invited to play a recital at the Bach Festival Leipzig in 2011, and during the 2013–2014 season he performed all six of Bach’s Cello Suites in a series of recitals in Hamburg and the UK.

His passion for chamber music also led him to found the award-winning Piano Trio Leipzig in 2011, which made its U.S. debut at the invitation of the Bach Society Houston, performing Beethoven’s Triple Concerto at the Festival Emilia Romagna in Imola, Italy. In his playing, Pelz combines deeply felt emotion with a buoyant joy of music. Thanks to the support of a generous sponsor, he has performed on a 1693 Giovanni Grancino cello made in Milan.