Nina Behrends was born in Munich, Germany in 1996 and began taking cello lessons at the age of six. After moving to Freiburg she took lessons with Beverley Ellis and in 2012 started studying in the class of Prof. Christoph Henkel at the Musikhochschule Freiburg. In the spring of 2015 she began her Bachelor studies with Prof. Thomas Kaufmann at the HMT Rostock and since autumn 2016 she has continued her studies there with Valentin Radutiu.
She has gathered valuable inspirations through masterclasses from renowned cellists and teachers such as Miklós Perényi, Gustav Rivinius, Frank-Michael Guthmann, Troels Svane and Philippe Muller.
From a young age Nina has had a passion to play chamber music and has performed in various ensembles all over Germany as well as in Meran, Italy. She has been engaged in playing contemporary music from early on playing in various orchestra projects, the last of them being a collaboration with the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra under Maestro Valery Gergiev.
Nina has won several first prizes in the national competition „Jugend musiziert“ in Germany along with other special prizes. In addition she has won the first prize in the Händel-competition in Karlsruhe.
In 2018 she was a participant of the TONALi academy and competition for young cellists.