Mare Keja

Born in Zevenaar, Netherlands, in 2004. Since 2023, she studies at the Reina Sofía School of Music’s Aline Foriel-Destezet Cello Chair with professor Ivan Monighetti. She has been granted a scholarship by Fundación Albéniz.

She started playing cello at the age of 3. She studied in the Netherlands, at the Prins Claus Conservatory in Groningen and at the CS Vicent van Gohg in Assen. She was part of the class of professors like Alexanda Vierkant, Corine ‘t Hoen and since 2019 Ivan Monighetti. She has attended masterclasses by Amir Eldan, Michel Strauss and Pablo Ferrández.

In her home country, she has performed with the National Youth Orchestra of the Netherlands and soloed with the Drents Symphony Orchestra playing the Khachaturian cello concerto; the Haydn Youth String Orchestra, with which she toured Italy and Bosnia and with which she also performed as a soloist. She played at the Nieuwe Kolk Theatre in Assen, the Spiegelzaal in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and the Oranjewoud Festival.

She won the Haydn Music Festival, the Princess Christina Competition and, in 2020, she was awarded the Drentse Talentprijs Cultuur for her achievements as performer.

She plays an 1830 Scottish cello, loaned by the National Musical Instruments Fund.

As a student of the School, she has performed with the Freixenet Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Péter Csaba, and she is currently part of the Dvořák Quartet and the Fundación Mutua Madrileña Ensemble.