Violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter wins Ruhr Piano Festival prize

Read more news articles here

The Ruhr Piano Festival in Germany has announced that the violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter will receive its annual prize in June 2023. It is the first time the prize will be awarded to an instrumentalist that is not a pianist.

In recognition for her close collaboration and partnership she has enjoyed with the festival, Mutter will receive the prize from the festival’s outgoing director Franz Xaver Ohnesorg at the Essen Philharmonic on 2 June, where she will perform a programme together with cellist Maximilian Hornung and pianist Lambert Orkis. Compensation consists in a scholarship granted by the prizewinner to a young pianist of their choice, who is then invited to give their debut recital the following year.

Mutter has appeared at the Ruhr Piano Festival numerous times since 1995, with her 2023 performance being her 15th. She has performed on six occasions with pianist Orkis, as well as in chamber music configurations with artists including pianists Ayami Ikeba, Lauma Skride and Yefim Bronfman, and cellist Daniel Müller-Schott, as well as the late Sir André Previn and Lynn Harrell. Mutter and the Ruhr Piano Festival have collaborated with Konzerthaus Dortmund in a charity concert to help Ukrainian children, where Mutter shared the stage with pianist Skride, cellist Pablo Ferrández, and the Cologne Chamber Orchestra conducted by Christoph Poppen in Beethoven’s Triple Concerto.