In the first months André and the JSO give concert in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark. From
the beginning of March they start to catch up the rescheduled concerts in South Africa, Ireland, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and 2 sold out stadium concerts in Amsterdam.
André releases the DVD Fiesta Mexicana! – a documentary and concert of his 2010 Mexico tour. In July the book André Rieu: The person behind the phenomenon is released. It is made by Dutch top photographer Govert de Roos, who describes the book as “A journey of 1000 days with André Rieu”.
In April André get’s a phone call from Anthony Hopkins – The Academy Award-winning actor has written music for many years, but composed his latest piece “And The Waltz Goes On” with Rieu specifically in mind to perform it. Rieu was so enthusiastic about the work that he immediately set plans in motion to record it, moving Hopkins’ wife to tears during the initial performance of the tune.
“I’ve been a great admirer of André Rieu for several years. He’s a great musician. My wife and I had the same dream of meeting him one day, so I’ve send him some music that I wrote. It’s a dream come true for me that André performed it with his orchestra. I’m totally knocked out by the result. It’s even more than I expected!” says Anthony Hopkins about his cooperation with André Rieu.
Sir Anthony Hopkins and his wife flew in a private jet to Maastricht to attend André’s hometown concerts where he performed it for the first time for such a large crowd. Rieu included the waltz on his new DVD and album and performed it on his USA, Canada and Mexico tours in the fall.
In september André started with the recordings for his new christmas special “Home for the Holidays” which was shown on German television in December.