Lena Eckels was born in Detmold / Germany and began to play the viola at the age of ten. She studied with Prof. Barbara Westphal and Prof. Lars-Anders Tomter. As a soloist she has won the GWK Förderpreis and 1st prize at the Brahms Competition (Pörtschach/Asutria). Lena attended master classes with Kim Kashkashian, Yuri Bashmet and Nobuko Imai among others. Together with her Pianist Simone Wolff, she was a scholarship holder at the „Yehudi Menuhin - Live music now“ society.
Lena Eckels has been a member of the Swiss-German Amaryllis Quartet for 10 years The quartet has won the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition in 2011 and appeared regulary in concert series and festivals including the Lucerne Festival, Heidelberger Frühling, The Chelsea Music Festival NYC, The Huntington Estate Music Festival Australia, Schwetzinger Festspiele and has performed in Viennas Musikverein, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Wigmore Hall and the Melbourne Reciatal Centre. The group won the Jürgen Ponto Kammermusikpreis 2012, the highest endowed award for chamber music in Germany and was awarded with an ECHO Klassik for the recording „White“.
She is a member of the German-Israeli „Else Ensemble“ – a young ensemble that collaborates regulay with diplomatic and multi-cultural institutions and initiates innovative, cross-disciplinary concerts. (www.else-ensemble.com)
In 2018 Lena Eckels was appointed professor of viola at the Musikhochschule Lübeck /Germany and is regulary performing in festivals and concerts all over Europe.
She plays a viola modeled after Gasparo da Salo made by Haat-Hedlef Uilderks.