Anne-Sophie Mutter has been an international figure in the world’s major concert halls for over 40 years, making her mark on the classical music scene as a soloist, mentor and visionary. The four-time Grammy Award winner is equally committed to the performance of traditional composers as to the future of music, having given the world premieres of 28 works by composers including Unsuk Chin, Sebastian Currier, Henri Dutilleux, Sofia Gubaidulina, Witold Lutoslawski, Norbert Moret, Krzysztof Penderecki, Sir André Previn, Wolfgang Rihm and John Williams. Ms. Mutter also dedicates herself to numerous benefit projects and to supporting future generations of musicians through the world-renown Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation.

Mutter commemorates the 250^th birthday of Ludwig van Beethoven throughout the 2019/2020 season, beginning in September 2019 with performances of his Violin Concerto with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. In October 2019, Mutter performed Beethoven’s Tripe Concerto with Franz Welser-Möst and the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra for Carnegie Hall’s season opening concert. She then performs the Triple Concerto with Daniel Barenboim, Yo-Yo Ma and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in Cologne, Paris, and Berlin, before embarking on a recital tour of China and Korea, joined by Lambert Orkis in Beethoven’s Spring and Kreutzer Sonatas. Mutter and Orkis repeat this programme in January 2020 for their five-city North American recital tour. On January 27^th, 2019 Mutter, performed the world premiere of Jörg Widmann’s Study on Beethoven String Quartet along with Beethoven string quartets in San Francisco, followed by the New York premiere of the work at Carnegie Hall on January 30^th, 2020. This programme forms the basis for Mutter’s Spring 2020 schedule, with appearances in Tokyo, Vienna, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Berlin, and Barcelona.

Mutter brings her seasonwide celebration of Beethoven to a thrilling conclusion in May and June 2020, performing Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Manfred Honeck, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Fabio Luisi, San Francisco Symphony conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra conducted by Otto Tausk, the MET Orchestra at Carnegie Hall conducted by Yannick Nezet-Séguin, and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra conducted by Manfred Honeck.

Mutter also led The Mutter Virtuosi, the ensemble of the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation, on the ensemble’s debut tour in South America in October and November 2019.

A four-time GrammyAward winner, Mutter released her latest recording, Across the Stars, featuring selections from John Williams’ most celebrated and beloved film scores, on Deutsche Gramophon on August 30^th, 2019.

In March 2018, Mutter became the first German artist to receive Poland’s Gloria Artis Gold Medal for Cultural Achievements and in June 2019 she received the coveted Polar Music Prize, awarded to both classical and popular artists who have made important cultural contributions. She was also a recipient of the German Grand Order of Merit, the French Medal of the Legion of Honour, the Bavarian Order of Merit, the Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria, and numerous other honours.

LU Wei is the Concertmaster of Deutsches Symphony Orchester Berlin, guest concertmaster of Berliner Philharmoniker, and the first violinist who joins to the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation.

LU Wei began learning the violin with his father at the age of three. A few years later, he entered the Primary-middle school attached to the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and studied with Prof. WANG Zhilong and LIN Yaoji.

LU Wei has been coached and praised by such world famous masters as Isaac Stern, Ruggiero Ricci, Itzhak Perlman, Salvatore Accardo, Igor Oistrakh, Ida Handel, Uto Ugi, Henry Meyer, Yuri Bashmet. In 1997, after attending his playing in Beijing, Anne-Sophie Mutter decided immediately to invite LU Wei for further studies sponsored by her foundation, during the time for scholarship, he studied with Prof. Franco Gulli in Indiana Bloominton, the United States, and Prof. Herman Krebbers in Amsterdam, Holland,and Prof. Ingolf Turban in Stuttgart conservatory of Music.

LU Wei has held concerts and recitals in North and South American, Europe, Australian and Asia, and performed as soloist with many world class orchestras as Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scotland National Orchestra. Nuernberg Opera House, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, China National Symphony Orchestra and China Philharmonic. He is the one of few violinist in the world who has performed as soloist in all of the main concert hall as Carnegie Hall, Musikverein Wien, Philharmonie Berlin and Sydney Opera House.

LU Wei is the only Chinese violinist who became Guest Concertmaster of Berliner Philharmonic. Also, he has been invited in many world class orchestra and opera house as London Symphony Orchestra, Gewandhaus Orchester Leipzig, Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, Munich Opera House, Nuernberg Opera House, NDR Symphony Orchestra,Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and Asia Philamonie. Since 2009 LU Wei started to give master class for solo and Chamber music in the Great Wall International Music Campel in Beijing and other Music Campels. From 2011 he played as chamber music partner and Concertmaster of “Mutter’s Vitrosi” with Anne Sophie Mutter touring all around the world including the citys as New York,Viener,Lucern,Munich,Chicago,Washington dc,Toronto,Beijing and Shanghai.

Special thanks for Mr. BAI Peng as sponsor for the Italian violin "Joseph Rocca" 1843.

“… the magnetic young German cellist Daniel Müller-Schott administered a dose of adrenaline…” New York Times

Daniel Müller-Schott is one of the most sought-after cellists in the world and can be heard on all the great international concert stages. For many years he has been enchanting audiences as an ambassador for classical music in the 21st century. The New York Times refers to his "intensive expressiveness" and describes him as a "fearless player with technique to burn ".

Daniel Müller-Schott guests with international leading orchestras; in the US with the orchestras in New York, Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Los Angeles; in Europe the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Bayrisches Staatsorchester and Münchner Philharmoniker, the Radio Orchestras from Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Leipzig and Hamburg, Copenhagen and Paris, Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich, the London Symphony and Philharmonic Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, the Spanish National Orchestra as well as in Australia with the Sydney and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and in Asia with Tokyo’s NHK Symphony Orchestra, Taiwan Symphony Orchestra and Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra.

Daniel Müller-Schott has appeared worldwide in concert with such renowned conductors as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Thomas Dausgaard, Christoph Eschenbach, Iván Fischer, Alan Gilbert, Gustavo Gimeno,

Bernard Haitink, Neeme Järvi, Karina Canellakis, Dmitrij Kitajenko, Susanna Mälkki, Andris Nelsons, Gianandrea Noseda, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Kirill Petrenko, Michael Sanderling and Krzysztof Urbański. Many years of musical collaboration linked him with Kurt Masur, Lorin Maazel, Yakov Kreizberg and Sir André Previn.

In addition to performances of the great cello concertos, Daniel Müller-Schott has a special interest in discovering unknown works and extending the cello repertoire, e.g. with his own transcriptions and through cooperation with contemporary composers. Sir André Previn and Peter Ruzicka have dedicated cello concertos to him, which were premiered under the direction of the composers with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and the Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. This past spring Daniel Müller- Schott played with Anne-Sophie Mutter and Lambert Orkis the first performance Ghost Trio by Sebastian Currier in New York’s Carnegie Hall. Both the US-born Sebastian Currier as well as Olli Mustonen have composed a cello sonata for Daniel Müller-Schott.

Highlights of the season 2019/20 include concerts in Europe with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and Vasily Petrenko, with the Czech Philharmonic and Jacub Hrůša. Additionally, Müller- Schott has re-invitations with Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and Simone Young, with Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Fabio Luisi and in the US with Seattle Symphony Orchestra and Marc Albrecht. In Asia Daniel Müller-Schott will perform with Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and Alejo Perez as well as with NCPA Orchestra China and Manfred Honeck and with New Japan Philharmonic and Cristian Macelaru. Daniel Müller-Schott will celebrate the Beethoven jubilee year together with “Anne- Sophie Mutter and Friends” with an extended orchestra and chamber Music tour in Europe, Asia and in the US. Beside the works by Ludwig van Beethoven, a new string quartet by Jörg Widmann will be premiered in San Francisco. At the festivals Schubertiade, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, MDR Musiksommer and Schleswig-Holstein Musikfestival, the cellist will be heard as a soloist as well as in chamber music. For the first time Daniel Müller-Schott will appear at the Rostropovich Festival in Moscow with the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana and Michel Tabachnik.

International music festivals regularly invite Daniel Müller-Schott including the London Proms, the Schubertiade, Schleswig-Holstein, Rheingau, Schwetzingen, the Heidelberg Spring Festival and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where the cellist has appeared first time as Artistic Director in 2019; and in the USA, festivals in Tanglewood, Ravinia, Bravo! Vail and the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. In his chamber music concerts, Daniel Müller-Schott collaborates inter alia with Nicholas Angelich, Kit Armstrong, Renaud Capuçon, Xavier de Maistre, Julia Fischer, Igor Levit, Sabine Meyer, Nils Mönkemeyer, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Francesco Piemontesi, Lauma and Baiba Skride and Simon Trpčeski.

Daniel Müller-Schott has been involved for many years in the project "Rhapsody in School". He regularly gives master classes and helps to support young musicians in Europe, the USA, Asia and Australia.

Since his childhood, Daniel Müller-Schott has felt a great love for the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. For his first CD record he chose the Six Suites for Cello Solo for Bach’s jubilee year in 2000.

Daniel Müller-Schott has already built up a sizeable discography in a career spanning twenty-five years under the ORFEO, Deutsche Grammophon, Hyperion, Pentatone and Warner labels and includes among others, works by Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, Haydn, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Prokofiev, Schubert, Khachaturian, Shostakovich, Elgar, Walton, Britten and Dvořák.

His recordings have been enthusiastically received by both the public and the press and have also received numerous awards, including the Gramophone Editor’s Choice, Strad Selection, and the BBC Music Magazine’s “CD of the month”. He has been awarded the Quarterly Prize of German Record Critics for his recordings of the Elgar and Walton Cello Concertos with Oslo Philharmonic and André

Previn and for his CD of the Shostakovich Cello Concertos recorded with the Bavarian Radio Orchestra and Yakov Kreizberg. In France the "Solo Suites" by Benjamin Britten were awarded with the Diapason d’or and "Dvořák The Cello Works" with the "Choc de Classica". For "Duo Sessions" Daniel Müller-Schott and Julia Fischer received the International Classical Music Award (ICMA) 2017. On his current CD with ORFEO (July 2019), Daniel Müller-Schott recorded works by Richard Strauss with pianist Herbert Schuch and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra with Sir Andrew Davis. Daniel Müller-Schott has recorded the last musical ideas by Ludwig van Beethoven together with Daniel Hope and Friends. All of the works are world premieres on recording and will be issued in an extensive Beethoven-Jubilee-Box on Deutsche Grammophon in November 2019.

Likewise, for November 2019 a further CD release is planned for ORFEO: #CelloUnlimited – works for cello solo of the 20^th/21^th century - Prokofjev, Crumb, Hindemith, Henze, Casals, Müller-Schott and Kodály.

Daniel Müller-Schott can be regularly seen and heard on national and international radio broadcasters and on the TV channels ARD, ZDF, ARTE and 3Sat as a soloist in concert recordings and as an interview guest.

Daniel Müller-Schott studied under Walter Nothas, Heinrich Schiff and Steven Isserlis. He was supported personally by Anne-Sophie Mutter and received, among other things, the Aida Stucki Prize as well as a year of private tuition under Mstislaw Rostropovich. At the age of fifteen, Daniel Müller- Schott won the first prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians in 1992 in Moscow.

For the historic celebration on the Day of German Unity in 2018 and in Memoriam to his deceased teacher Mstislav Rostropovich Daniel Müller-Schott played in front of about 500,000 listeners at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin music by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Beside the music Daniel Müller-Schott has also a considerable affinity for the fine arts, in particular for French paintings of the 19^th century. During his travels he always visits the major museums, seeing the great masters in the original. The cellist regularly takes part in art projects himself, for example in the "Street Art“ project in Munich, Berlin (ARTE), Melbourne 2016 and as Artistic Director of the Classical Music Spring Festival Rugen 2010.

Daniel Müller-Schott plays the “Ex Shapiro” Matteo Goffriller cello, made in Venice in 1727.

German violist Vladimir Babeshko is one of the most prominent soloists and chamber musicians of his generation.

He has performed at the Lockenhaus, Schleswig-Holstein, Rheingau, Edinburgh International, Verbier, Next Generation, Oberstdorfer Musiktagen, Weilburger Schlosskonzert, Oranjewood, Chelsea Music, and Rio Music Week festivals, collaborating with esteemed colleagues such as Christoph Eschenbach, Gidon Kremer, Daniel Müller-Schott, Gary Hoffman, Lynn Harrell, Lambert Orkis, Ksenia Bashmet and the Henschel Quartet.

This season Babeshko joins his long-term mentor Anne-Sophie Mutter for performances throughout Europe, North America, and Asia that feature the world and national premieres of Jörg Widmann’s Study on Beethoven String Quartet No. 6, as well as on a tour of South American with her soloist ensemble the "Mutter Virtuosi".

Composer Pierre-Dominique Ponnelle dedicated and wrote for him a viola concerto, which received its premiere in Mannheim with the Kurpfälzisches Kammerorchester in 2015.

He is currently first solo violist and section leader of the Belgian National Orchestra.

Vladimir Babeshko plays on a viola by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume from the year 1870, which is generously lent to him by the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation of which he was a scholarship recipient from 2009 to 2018.