Worlds of faith

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”.