Anne-Sophie Mutter
violin
About this Artist
Anne-Sophie Mutter is a musical phenomenon: For 47 years, the virtuoso has been a fixture in all the world’s major concert halls, making her mark on the classical music scene as a soloist, mentor, and visionary. The four-time Grammy Award winner is equally as committed to the performance of traditional composers as to the future of music.
So far, she has given world premieres of 31 works—Thomas Adès, Unsuk Chin, Sebastian Currier, Henri Dutilleux, Sofia Gubaidulina, Witold Lutosławski, Norbert Moret, Krzysztof Penderecki, Sir André Previn, Wolfgang Rihm, Jörg Widmann, and John Williams have all composed for Anne-Sophie Mutter. She dedicates herself to supporting tomorrow’s musical elite and numerous benefit projects. The board of trustees of the German cancer charity Deutsche Krebshilfe elected her president of the nonprofit organization in 2021. In January 2022, she joined the foundation board of the Lucerne Festival. In the autumn of 1997, she founded the Association of Friends of the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation e.V., to which the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation was added in 2008. These two charitable institutions provide support for scholarship recipients, support that is tailored to the fellows’ individual needs. Since 2011, Anne-Sophie Mutter has regularly shared the spotlight onstage with her ensemble of fellows, Mutter’s Virtuosi.
In 2023, the year she turned 60, Anne-Sophie Mutter’s concerts reflected the violinist’s musical versatility and her peerless rank in the world of classical music. Numerous compositions dedicated to her fill her concert calendar; in many countries, these works are programmed for the first time. At the turn of the new year, Anne-Sophie Mutter and Mutter’s Virtuosi are touring Iceland, the U.S., and Canada. Two further tours in June and August/September take Anne-Sophie Mutter and her Virtuosi through Europe. A European chamber music tour is also planned by Mutter with Lambert Orkis and the cellist Maximilian Hornung.
In the U.S., she performs Thomas Adès’ Air—Homage to Sibelius, a work she co-commissioned and premiered at the Lucerne Festival in 2022 together with the composer. Her musical partners are the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Andris Nelsons.
Another musical focus in 2023 was the oeuvre of John Williams: In Australia, Europe, New Zealand, and the U.S., Mutter performed his Violin Concerto No. 2, dedicated to her, as well as a selection of the virtuoso film music adaptations Williams created especially for her—the American performances were conducted by the composer himself.
Mutter concluded 2023 performing Penderecki’s Violin Concerto No. 2, “Metamorphosen,” in honor of the 90th birthday of the composer, who passed away in 2020. She played this work, which is also dedicated to her, in Poland and Israel together with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra under Andrey Boreyko.