Violinist mentors Korean musicians

Violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter / Courtesy of Credia

By Do Je-hae

Violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter will perform in Seoul next month with the Mutter Virtuosi, a group of 14 musicians that she supports through her foundation.

While maintaining a hugely successful solo career, she has devoted herself to nurturing the future generation of string players by establishing the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation in 1997.

The German virtuoso will perform with the group at Seoul Arts Center on June 14, in a program of Mendelssohn’s "Octet in E Flat Major, Op. 20" and Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons." They will also give a Korean premiere of the U.S. composer Sebastian Currier’s “Ring tones," reflecting Mutter's devotion to spreading contemporary music.

Mutter has played in Korea several times, but this is the first time she will be joined by the Mutter Virtuosi that includes three extraordinary Korean artists.

Violinist Choi Ye-eun, 25, made her local debut with the New York Philharmonic in 2010. After studying under Kim Nam-yun, Choi currently works with Ana Chumachenko in Munich. In 2005, she was brought to the attention of Mutter, soon becoming a recipient of a foundation scholarship and continuing to benefit from intense personal support from Mutter.

"Ye-eun is an extraordinarily gifted individual, with a truly impressive combination of musical sensibility and courageous virtuosity," Mutter said. "Her stylistic range is also highly developed and she has a charismatic, winning personality. It is a great delight to observe her continuously maturing talent."

The youngest member of the ensemble is the viola prodigy Lee Hwa-yoon, 16, who recently won the grand prix in the 7th International Yuri Bashmet Viola Competition in Moscow.

The ensemble has a Korean cellist Kim Doo-min, a principal with the Dusseldorfer Symphony Orchestra.

Mutter first came to international attention in the 1970s as a teenager through an iconic musical partnership with the late Herbert von Karajan, who led the Berlin Philharmonic for more than 30 years.

Mutter celebrated her 35th anniversary on stage in 2011, and her record label Deutsche Grammophon feted the occasion with a limited box-set of 40 CDs comprising her entire DG recordings from 1978 to 2010.