50 years on stage – with curiosity, commitment and creative drive for the future of music

Five decades on the world’s great stages – and no sign of slowing down: in 2026 and 2027, Anne-Sophie Mutter will celebrate her extraordinary stage anniversary with an artistic programme that focuses on the future. For almost half a century, the four-time GRAMMY® winner has been a driving force in international music life. As one of the most important German artists of our time, she has inspired numerous composers to write new works: Krzysztof Penderecki and Sofia Gubaidulina wrote works for her, as did John Williams and Max Richter. This has already resulted in 34 works and arrangements composed especially for her. An inspiration to entire generations of musicians and a tireless questioner of the classical repertoire, Anne-Sophie Mutter is an artist of new beginnings: curious, daring and open to what music can be today and tomorrow.

A new series of recordings in collaboration with Alpha Classics: a focus on contemporary music

Anne-Sophie Mutter is launching her own series, ASM Forte Forward, devoted to the music of our time. Between 2026 and 2028, four new recordings will be released on the Alpha Classics label, exclusively featuring contemporary works written for her. Working alongside musical friends – including both current and former scholarship recipients of the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation – this series also marks a new chapter in Mutter’s career: for the first time, she is producing the recordings herself. 

• The first release, East Meets West, will be released on 27 March 2026 and includes works by Aftab Darvishi, Unsuk Chin, Jörg Widmann and Thomas Adès. 
• The second album, American Tunes #1, features works by André Previn and Sebastian Currier. It will be released in August 2026, coinciding with Mutter’s jubilee concert at the Lucerne Festival.

The collaboration with Alpha Classics expands Mutter’s artistic radius and complements her decades-long partnership with Deutsche Grammophon. Both worlds enrich each other – independent artistic freedom and long-term continuity. “With Alpha Classics, I am opening up new avenues for myself and my foundation. I am delighted that Alpha Classics is creating a forum for my new series, ASM Forte Forward, which stands for courage, independence and openness to new ideas. These are values that I would like to pass on to the next generation,” says Anne-Sophie Mutter.

Deutsche Grammophon: „The Nature of Anne-Sophie Mutter“ – a curation of her discography

At the same time, Deutsche Grammophon is marking the anniversary with a comprehensive catalogue initiative spanning 40 years of collaboration, tracing the course of her career: reissues of iconic recordings and a series of digital albums curated by Anne-Sophie Mutter paint a panorama of her artistic development – from her early recordings under Herbert von Karajan to her most recent recordings.
At the beginning of February, Anne-Sophie Mutter’s first recording, made in 1978, Mozart’s Violin Concertos Nos. 3 & 5 with the Berlin Philharmonic and Herbert von Karajan, will be released as a reissue in the audiophile vinyl series “The Original Source Series.” This series presents outstanding recordings from the 1970s in a whole new sound quality.
A series of digital albums, personally curated by Anne-Sophie Mutter, will be released at irregular intervals in 2026 and 2027: Each album will focus on a city with which Anne-Sophie Mutter has had outstanding musical encounters, concerts and recordings. We will follow the artist “around the globe,” starting in February 2026 with the album “Anne-Sophie Mutter & London” and travelling via Berlin, Lucerne, Salzburg and Vienna to Tokyo and New York.
Furthermore, STAGE+, Deutsche Grammophon’s streaming service, celebrates Anne-Sophie Mutter’s outstanding artistic achievements with an extensive selection of video-on-demand content (exclusive interviews, concerts, documentaries) covering her work with Herbert von Karajan in the early 1980s and her recent collaborations with film composer John Williams.

Lucerne and Salzburg – two fixed stars in the stage anniversary

The anniversary takes Anne-Sophie Mutter back to places that have shaped her career. At the Lucerne Festival, where her international stage career began in 1976, she will perform contemporary works as well as great classics from her repertoire next year. In 2027, she plans to return to Salzburg, where she made her debut in 1977 and began her groundbreaking friendship with Herbert von Karajan. The anniversary year will be accompanied by numerous other international concerts showcasing the diversity of her repertoire and her commitment to contemporary music.
Her humanitarian commitment will also be part of her stage anniversary: on 12 May 2026, Anne-Sophie Mutter will play a benefit concert for Doctors Without Borders in Dresden. On 15 June 2026, she will perform with the Berlin Baroque Soloists at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg in aid of Welthungerhilfe.

An anniversary with a view to the future – composition commissions & world premieres

In 2027, the anniversary year will continue with further highlights – including world premieres of newly commissioned works by Sebastian Currier and Golfam Khayam. More information on this will be announced in the summer of 2027.
An anniversary can be a retrospective – or a starting point. For Anne-Sophie Mutter, it is the latter. She is using this moment to break new ground: as a soloist, mentor, producer and catalyst. “Music opens up a space that we can all enter, no matter where we come from. It invites us to come closer to one another, to listen and to feel a genuine connection. The fact that music creates this dialogue and brings us together makes it one of the most beautiful and important forces of our time,” explains Anne-Sophie Mutter.

Upcoming concerts in 2026 (selection)

January 23/24: Taipei: 
Asian premiere: Likoo by Aftab Darvishi
National Symphony Orchestra
Lina González-Granados, conductor
Works by John Williams

January 29/30: Hong Kong
Hong Kong Philharmonic
Lina González-Granados, conductor
Works by John Williams

February 14: Künzelsau
Würth Philharmonic
Claudio Vandelli, conductor
Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto

February 18: London
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Karina Canellakis, conductor
Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto

Further tour dates:
February 20: Cologne, February 21: Düsseldorf, February 22: Luxembourg, February 24: Hamburg, February 26: Hanover, February 27: Frankfurt, February 28: Vienna

March 18/20/21: Tel Aviv, March 19: Haifa
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
Lahav Shani, conductor
Beethoven: Violin Concerto

May 12: Dresden
Benefit concert for Doctors Without Borders
Lauma Skride, piano
Sakura Toba, cello

May 16: London
European premiere of Likoo by Aftab Darvishi
Lauma Skride, piano
Maximilian Hornung, cello

May 22: Turin
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Vasily Petrenko, conductor
Beethoven: Violin Concerto

June 2: Cologne
Berlin Baroque Soloists
German premiere of Likoo by Aftab Darvishi
Works by Previn and Mozart

Further tour dates: 
June 3: Dortmund, June 4: Düsseldorf, June 6: Coesfeld, June 9: Stuttgart, June 10: Freiburg, June 11: Mannheim, June 13: Regensburg, June 14: Bad Kissingen

June 15: Hamburg
Benefit concert for Welthungerhilfe
Participants and programme: see above.

Lucerne Festival
Anniversary: 50 years on stage
August 23:
Artist talk on the 50th stage anniversary

August 25: 
Lucerne Festival Orchestra
Swiss premiere of Likoo by Aftab Darvishi
Works by Previn and Mozart

September 3:
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Manfred Honeck, conductor
Penderecki: Metamorphosesn

Press Contact

PS Music Berlin
Peggy Schmidt & Simone Dollmann
mail: peggy.schmidt@psmusicberlin.com & simone.dollmann@psmusicberlin.com
phone: +49 171 68 90 112

Alpha Classics
Floor van der Holst
mail: floorvanderholst@vamartists.com
phone: +31 64 84 82 884

Deutsche Grammophon
Sabine Kindel
mail: Sabine.Kindel@umusic.com
phone: +49 16 09 77 21 093

Further press material is available for download here

photos: Andreas Ortner, Alpha Classics, Deutsche Grammophon