Sellheim began to play violin at age six. He studied violin at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover. He then studied viola, from 1996 with Volker Worlitzsch [de] of the NDR Radiophilharmonie, from 1999 with Hartmut Rohde at the Universität der Künste Berlin, from 2004 with Nobuko Imai in Amsterdam, and with Wilfried Strehle of the Berliner Philharmoniker.[1] He was from 2004 violist with the Staatskapelle Berlin conducted by Daniel Barenboim, and from 2006 violist of the Münchner Philharmoniker.[2]
He has played with his sister, the pianist Katharina Sellheim, as the Duo Sellheim.[2] They recorded a CD, Fantasy, of works by Robert Schumann, Paul Hindemith and Rebecca Clarke.[2] With the clarinetist László Kuti, they have performed as the Sellheim-Kuti-Trio.[3] The trio recorded a CD, Märchenerzählungen (Fairy tales), including Mozart's Kegelstatt Trio, K. 498, Schumann's Märchenerzählungen, Op. 132, György Kurtág's Hommage a R. Sch., Op. 15d, Prokofiev's Overture on Hebrew Themes, Op. 34, and Greetings from the Balkan by Béla Kovács.[4] Sellheim also played chamber music with Giora Feidman, Igor Levit and Michael Schade, among others.[2]
Sellheim created new music, playing for example in 2014 in a concert at the Gasteig in Munich the premiere of the piano quartet Skylla and Charybdis by Graham Waterhouse, along with the composer's Sonata ebraica and Beethoven's Piano Quartet in C major, WoO 36/3, with his sister, the violinist David Frühwirth and the composer.[5]
He has been lecturer of viola at the Universität der Künste Berlin in Rohde's class.[2]
Sellheim received prizes at international competitions including the International Johannes Brahms Competition in Pörtschach in 2002 and the International Max Rostal Competition [de] in Berlin in 2004.[2]
