Anne-Sophie Mutter
"I am an artist of extremes, I love taking advantage of the infinite range of colors that the violin has to offer."
Anne-Sophie Mutter is considered one of the most important artistic personalities of our time and as a violin virtuoso she enjoys an international reputation. German violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter received her first violin lessons from Erna Honingsberger. In 1976, at the age of thirteen, she was discovered by Herbert von Karajan during a recital at the Lucerne Festival and she made her debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker during his 1977 Salzburger Festspiele. Another year later Anne-Sophie Mutter made her first recording with him of Mozart's Third and Fifth Violin Concerts.
In the following years, the fame of the violinist grew rapidly; she traveled the world giving recitals, performed with many major orchestras and received several Grammy Awards for her records and CDs. She has received awards including the Grammy Award, the ECHO Klassik, the Grosses Bundesverdienstkreuz, the French Ordre de la legion d'honneur and the Grosses Österreichisches Ehrenzeichen and in 2013, she became an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. A year later she founded the Rudolf Eberle Foundation to promote young violin talents, which she then merged into the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation, which she founded in 2008.