Anne-Sophie Mutter

Anne-Sophie Mutter (born 29 June 1963) is a German violinist. Born in Rheinfelden, Baden-Württemberg and raised in the nearby town Wehr, Mutter began playing the violin at age five and pursued further studies in Germany and Switzerland. She was supported early in her career by Herbert von Karajan, made her orchestral debut with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1977, and rose to international prominence in the early 1980s. She has since performed as a soloist with leading orchestras worldwide and has recorded more than 50 albums, mostly with the Deutsche Grammophon label, earning four Grammy Awards, two ECHO Klassik awards, two Opus Klassik awards, and a Grand Prix du Disque. Despite her success and fame in the 1980s, Mutter's interpretive style often divides critics.

Mutter's repertoire includes traditional classical violin works from the Baroque period to the 20th century, but she is particularly known for performing, recording, and commissioning new works by contemporary composers. As an advocate of contemporary music, she has had several works composed especially for her, by Thomas Adès, Unsuk Chin, Sebastian Currier, Henri Dutilleux, Sofia Gubaidulina, Witold Lutosławski, Norbert Moret, Krzysztof Penderecki, André Previn, Wolfgang Rihm, Jörg Widmann, Max Richter, and John Williams. Over the years, Mutter has repeatedly collaborated with and made recordings with conductors such as Herbert von Karajan, André Previn, Seiji Ozawa, Daniel Barenboim, James Levine, Kurt Masur, Simon Rattle, Manfred Honeck, Alan Gilbert and John Williams, as well as with her longtime recital partner, pianist Lambert Orkis.

Mutter has received numerous international awards, including the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize (2008), the Polar Music Prize (2019), the Grand Decoration of Honour of Austria (2007), the Grand Cross Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (2009), France's Legion of Honour (2009), Spain's Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts (2016), Romania's Grand Cross National Order of Merit (2017), Poland's Gold Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis (2018), Japan's Praemium Imperiale (2019), and holds honorary memberships at the Royal Academy of Music (1986) and American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2013).

Mutter founded the Association of Friends of the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation e.V. in 1997 and established the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation in 2008, both dedicated to supporting young string musicians. She frequently gives benefit concerts and was the president of the German Cancer Aid from 2021 to 2025.

Mutter was born in the German town of Rheinfelden, Baden-Württemberg. Her parents were Karl Wilhelm Mutter and Gerlinde Mutter and she was raised with two older brothers. While Mutter's father was a journalist who edited a newspaper in Baden-Württemberg, her mother was the first woman in her family to graduate from college. Although no one in the home played a musical instrument, all were passionate about classical music.

Mutter began piano lessons at age five but after a few months switched to the violin after listening to an album of the Mendelssohn and Beethoven violin concertos that her parents had given to each other as an engagement present. At age six, after only one year of violin lessons, Mutter won the National Music Prize, and in 1972 she gave her first concert, with the then 343-year-old Musikkollegium Winterthur.

Inspired by another recording, of violinist Yehudi Menuhin with Wilhelm Furtwängler, she then began studying with Erna Honigberger, a pupil of Carl Flesch; and when Honigberger died, in 1974, she continued with Aida Stucki, also a former student of Flesch, at the Winterthur Conservatory.

Mutter's playing began to receive wider attention and she stopped attending school to devote herself full time to music. At only 13 years old, she made her public recital debut on August 23, 1976 at the Lucerne Festival, performing works by Tartini, Bach, de Falla, Paganini, and de Sarasate. Conductor Herbert von Karajan heard Mutter play at the Lucerne Festival and arranged for her to perform at The Salzburg Whitsun Festival, where she debuted with the Berlin Philharmonic on May 29, 1977 in a performance of Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 3. In the summer of 1977, she made her debut at the Salzburg Festival, performing Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 2 with the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg. Critics praised the level of maturity in Mutter's performances, with one reviewer of Die Welt writing, "She played it ravishingly, and above all, she did not play it at all like a child prodigy. Her technique is fully mature."