Maialen Eguiazabal Arruabarrena

Maialen Eguiazabal was born in 1995 in Irun, Spain, and has been playing the cello since the age of seven. After completing her secondary education, she was accepted into the cello class of Asier Polo and Maria Casado at Musikene, the Higher School of Music in San Sebastián, Spain. After earning her bachelor's degree, she was awarded the “Nicanor Zabaleta” scholarship in both 2017 and 2018, which enabled her to pursue a master’s degree at the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf with Gregor Horsch, principal cellist of the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. She graduated with top marks in June 2021.

She was selected to participate in various chamber music festivals, such as the Quincena Musical in San Sebastián and the Fundación Juan March in Madrid. She was a member of the Spanish National Youth Orchestra, performing in major concert halls across Europe, including the Konzerthaus Berlin and the Ateneul Român in Bucharest. More recently, she has also collaborated with the Spanish National Orchestra. She has taken part in masterclasses with renowned cellists such as Peter Bruns, Rafael Rosenfeld, Alban Gerhardt, Steven Isserlis, Wen-Sinn Yang, and Troels Svane. She was selected to participate in the Piatigorsky International Cello Festival, which was scheduled to take place in Los Angeles in March 2020 but was cancelled due to COVID-19.

She received a Deutschlandstipendium, was an academy member of the Gürzenich Orchestra for the 2021/22 season, and has been a cellist with the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne since 2022.