This picture is worth a thousand words! There is no mistaking the thrill these young violin students from Aliso Viejo High School in Southern California felt when they met an idol and role model. Ms. Mutter, shown here with her collaborating pianist Lambert Orkis, graciously spent some time with the youngsters backstage after her February 23, 2000 recital presented by the Philharmonic Society at the Orange County Center for the Performing Arts in Costa Mesa, California. Surely they came away convinced that the artist they so admire, who plays the violin from the heart, also speaks from the heart.

And everything else she does, be it to encourage artistic excellence or to benefit charitable causes, does come from the heart:

In support of talented young string players throughout Europe, she established in 1987 the Rudolf Eberle Endowment. In 1998 it became part of the Munich-based Circle of Friends of the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation, extending its support to young talent world-wide.

Recently she restructured the Carl Flesch Violin Competition in order to establish new requisites for violinists in the new millennium and to revive it as a leading violin competition in the world. (She was trained through her mentors Henryk Szyering and Aida Stucki in the Carl Flesch school of violin playing.)

Through regular benefit concerts, she supports worthy social causes. In 1999, she performed in a Gala Concert in Salzburg to benefit the SOS Children's Villages; a concert in Jerusalem benefited the Chaim Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv; and on her most recent US tour, a portion of her fee for each recital went to Classical Action: Performing Arts Against AIDS.

Youth, talent, vision, celebrity, and a big heart -- Anne-Sophie Mutter, she has it all!  - GC/FanFaire2000

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