Anne-Sophie Mutter
Violin
For three decades Anne-Sophie Mutter has been one of the most acclaimed violin virtuosos of our time. Born in Rheinfelden in the state of Baden, the violinist launched her international career at the Lucerne Festival in 1976. A year later she performed as a soloist at the Salzburg Whitsun Concerts under the direction of Herbert von Karajan. Since then Anne-Sophie Mutter has performed concerts in all the major music centers of Europe, North and South America and Asia. In addition to performing major traditional works she has continually treated her audiences to new and innovative repertoire, both in chamber music and concerted works. She also uses her popularity and renown for the benefit of numerous charity projects and supports the development of young, exceptionally talented musicians.

On sabbatical during the fall of 2009, Ms. Mutter returns to the stage in January 2010 with recital featuring the Brahms Sonatas in Abu Dhabi and Paris and February concerts of the Brahms Violin Concerto with the Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck in Pittsburgh and New York. After a spring tour in China, Taiwan and Japan of the Brahms Sonatas she will present the Asian premiere of Gubaidulina's concerto In tempus praesens in Tokyo.

Concerts in Europe with Pittsburgh and Honeck include Paris, Luxembourg, Prague, Budapest, and Vienna and will be followed by a 12-concert European recital tour, featuring sonatas by Debussy, Brahms, Mendelssohn and Carmen Fantasie by Sarasate, a residency at the Rheingau Festival and performances of  In tempus praesens in Baden-Baden, St. Petersburg, and Moscow with the Mariinsky Orchestra and Valery Gergiev.

Anne-Sophie Mutter's concert calendar for 2009 focused on contemporary works: she premiered Gubaidulina's In tempus praesens in Germany, Spain and the USA and Sir André Previn's Concerto for Violin, Contrabass and Orchestra in Germany and Switzerland with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra.

She premiered Sir André Previn's Concerto for Violin, Viola and Orchestra with Yuri Bashmet (viola) and the Orchestra of St. Luke's and his Piano Trio No. 2 with the Mutter-Previn-Harrell Trio in Carnegie Hall on the occasion of Previn's 80th birthday.

In celebration of the Mendelssohn bicentennial Ms. Mutter performed Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto while on a European tour with the Oslo Philharmonic under the direction of Saraste, in Canada with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal under Frühbeck de Burgos, in San Francisco with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra led by Tilson Thomas and in New York with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra directed by Kurt Masur.

Together with Sir André Previn (piano) and Lynn Harrell (violoncello) she performed Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto No. 1 and Mozart's Piano Trio No. 4 in Germany, Turkey and the USA and appeared on a 2009 Deutsche Grammophon CD and DVD featuring Mendelssohn's Violin Sonata in F major, Piano Trio in D minor with Violin Concerto in E minor under the direction of Kurt Masur and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig.

The honors afforded Anne-Sophie Mutter for her many recordings include the German Record Prize, the Record Academy Prize, the Grand Prix du Disque, the International Record Prize and several Grammies. On the occasion of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's 250th birthday Anne-Sophie Mutter recorded all of Mozart's major compositions for violin on the Deutsche Grammophon label on both CD and DVD for which she was awarded the "Le Monde de la Musique and "Record Geijutsu".

The artist takes special pride in performing contemporary compositions for violin. Sebastian Currier, Henri Dutilleux, Sofia Gubaidulina, Witold Lutoslawski, Norbert Moret, Krzysztof Penderecki, Sir André Previn and Wolfgang Rihm have all dedicated works to Ms. Mutter. She will give premiere performances of chamber works by Penderecki and Rihm in 2010 and a future world premiere of a concerto by Sebastian Currier.

Anne-Sophie Mutter's recording of Gubaidulina's Violin Concerto In tempus praesens together with the London Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Valery Gergiev appears on a 2008 DG release that also includes her recording of Bach's A minor and E major Violin concerti performed with the Trondheim Soloists under the direction of the violinist herself.

In 2008 the artist established the "Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation," with the objective to further increase worldwide support for promising young musicians - a task that the violinist took on when she founded the "The Anne-Sophie Mutter Circle of Friends Foundation" in 1997.

Anne-Sophie Mutter takes a special interest in the social and medical issues of our time and in the needs of educational and cultural institutions. She regularly lends her support to these causes through charitable concerts.

Anne-Sophie Mutter recently received the International Ernst von Siemens Music Prize as well as the Leipzig Mendelssohn Prize. She is a bearer of the Order of Merit of the German Federal Republic 1st Class, the Bavarian Order of Merit, the Great Austrian Order of Merit for Service to the Republic of Austria, and the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.