Tuba or not to be

Anne Mentzen was born in Braunschweig in 1981, where she received her first piano lessons at the age of five. At the age of nine she began horn lessons and from 1998 was trained by Theodor Wiemes, principal horn of the Radiophilharmonie Hannover. After graduating from high school, she began studying horn in the fall of 2000 in the class of Marie-Luise Neunecker at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main. From 2003 she studied with Thomas Hauschild at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Leipzig, where she graduated with honors. Anne Mentzen won several federal prizes at “Jugend musiziert” as well as prizes at other competitions, both with the horn and on the piano. In 1999, in addition to the first national prize, she was awarded a special prize by the Hanover Artists’ Association and in 2000 she was also awarded the Lower Saxony Prize for “outstanding achievements in the cultural field”. She has also received scholarships from the Volkswagen Bank (1999), the Richard Wagner Association (2000), and the Gustav Mahler Academy (2002, 2005). The hornist gained orchestral experience in the state and national youth orchestras, the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, and was invited several times to the International Orchestra Academy of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. After an internship with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and a temporary position with the Staatsorchester Kassel, she went to the Deutsche Oper Berlin as an intern in 2005. Since 2006 Anne Mentzen has been a horn player with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin. Here she plays in various chamber music formations, such as the ensemble “Samtblech”.

Fabian Neckermann, born in 1995 in Ochsenfurt, Lower Franconia, has been principal tuba in the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin since 2018 and has also been a lecturer at the Anton Rubinstein International Music Academy since 2021.
After starting out in the local music association, he completed a two-year training programme to become a state-certified ensemble leader at the vocational school for music in Bad Königshofen with instrumental teacher Udo Schneider. In 2013, he studied with Prof. Jens Bjørn-Larsen at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media, where he completed his bachelor’s degree with top marks.

He gained his first orchestral experience as a member of the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie and the European Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, as well as an academy member of the Nuremberg State Philharmonic and the Bavarian State Orchestra in Munich.
Guest appearances as an orchestral musician have also taken him to the opera houses in Würzburg, Saarbrücken, Bonn, Hamburg and Berlin, as well as to the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic.

Fabian Neckermann was a finalist in the 2016 German Music Competition, whereupon he received a special prize from the Capriccio Kulturforum – Gesellschaft zur Förderung von klassischer Musik und Kultur e.V. and was accepted as a scholarship holder in the 61st Federal Selection of Concerts by Young Artists. In the final, he performed as a soloist with the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn.

With his ensemble “Trio 21meter60”, consisting of three tubas, he was awarded the OPUS KLASSIK in 2022.
He is also a regular guest in ensembles such as “Genesis Brass”, the “Brass Ensemble Ludwig Güttler” and the “Brass Ensemble of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra”.

Hans-Jakob Eschenburg received his first cello lessons at the Rostock Conservatory. After studying with Josef Schwab at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” Berlin, he was principal cellist of the Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1984 to 1988.

With the renowned Petersen Quartet, of which he was a founding member until 2000, he won several international competitions (Prague, Evian, Florence, Munich) and appeared on the major concert stages and at numerous festivals in Europe, North and South America, Asia and Australia. Several of the Petersen Quartet’s numerous CD recordings have won international awards.

Since 1999 Hans-Jakob Eschenburg has been principal cellist of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin. He held the same position in the chamber orchestra “Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach”. He frequently appears as a soloist and chamber musician, including as a member of various chamber ensembles such as the Gideon Klein Trio. Hans-Jakob Eschenburg teaches as an honorary professor at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” Berlin. He is also involved as a mentor of the Orchestra Academy of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin.