Record Label Name:

Sony BMG, Virgin, EMI

Record Label Type:

Major

Genre:

Pop, Classic Rock

Biography:

Vanessa-Mae Vanakorn Nicholson (born October 27, 1978), known professionally as Vanessa-Mae (in Chinese: 陳美, Chén Měi), is an internationally known Singaporean-born British pop and classical musician, especially noted for her violin skills. Her music style is self-described as "violin techno-acoustic fusion," as several of her albums prominently feature the techno style.

Vanessa-Mae was born in Singapore to a Thai father (Varaprong Vanakorn) and a Chinese mother (Pamela Tan). After her parents separated, her mother married Englishman Graham Nicholson, and the family moved to England when Vanessa-Mae was four years old. She grew up in London and is a British citizen.

Vanessa-Mae began playing piano at the age of three and violin at five.

She was relatively famous in the United Kingdom throughout her childhood making regular appearances on television (for example on Blue Peter) mostly involving classical music and conservative style. According to Guinness World Records, she is the youngest soloist to record both the Beethoven and Tchaikovsky violin concertos, a feat she accomplished at the age of thirteen. During this time she attended the Francis Holland School in central London.

Vanessa-Mae made her international professional debut at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival in Germany in 1988, and also during 1988 made her concerto debut on stage with the Philharmonia Orchestra in London.

On entering adolescence Vanessa-Mae broke away from her traditional classical influences and became known for her flashy, sexy style appearing in music videos in stylish outfits. She appeared on the Janet Jackson album The Velvet Rope playing a violin solo on the song "Velvet Rope." Her first pop-style album, The Violin Player, was released in 1995, and is still regarded as one of the best works of her career.

In April 2006, Vanessa-Mae was ranked as the wealthiest young entertainer under 30 in the UK in the Sunday Times Rich List 2006. Having an estimated fortune of about £32 million ($64 million) stemming from concerts and record sales of over an estimated 10 million copies world wide, which is an unprecedented achievement for a young female violinist.

Vanessa-Mae announced in 2006 that she would be releasing a new album sometime between 2007 and 2008. The album will consist of inspiration from great ballets and opera themes.

Vanessa-Mae most often uses one of two types of violins, a Guadagnini acoustic violin or a Zeta Jazz model electric violin.

The Guadagnini was made in 1761, and was purchased by her parents at an auction for £150,000. It was stolen in January, 1995, but was recovered by the police two months later. She once fell and broke it, but it was repaired. It is currently valued at almost $500,000.

In addition, she uses one of two Zeta Jazz Model electric violins, one of which is white and the other one of which features decals of the U.S. flag.

In addition to these two main violins, she sometimes buys violins and resells them later, giving the proceeds to charity.

Members:

The beautiful young violinist Vanessa-Mae was just in her mid-teens when she shattered the mold of the classical virtuoso with the release of her first fusion album The Violin Player, forging a new style that has made her a multi-million-selling worldwide phenomenon and the breakthrough artist who virtually defined the fusion of classical and pop that became known as crossover. At the age of 25, she has been a superstar for a decade. Now she makes her Sony Classical debut and marks a new musical direction with the release of Choreography, a highly original album that celebrates dance rhythms from around the world. Original pieces and fresh arrangements have been created for the album by the Oscar-winning Vangelis, Bill Whelan of Riverdance, Indian film composer A.R. Rahman (the musical Bombay Dreams) and Tolga Kashif (The Queen Symphony), amongst others. Choreography will be released internationally in September 2004 and in the U.S. in early 2005.

Vanessa-Mae brings to this project the experience of a classical violin prodigy who was well into a major international concert career when she was barely in her teens. The success of The Violin Player justified a bold creative gamble she wanted to take - a new synthesis of classical and pop sounds that would tap a broad and enthusiastic international audience as surely as it would raise the hackles of tradition-bound classical critics. The albums that followed confirmed this success - worldwide sales have topped 8 million units so far, earning more than 40 international platinum awards - making her a superstar for whom there seem to be no musical limits.

Vanessa-Mae has collaborated with such pop legends as Janet Jackson and Prince, performed on the soundtrack of the Disney animated feature Mulan, played Bach for the British Royal Family on the 250th anniversary of the composer's death, fiddled as she modeled a wedding dress on the runway of a Jean-Paul Gualtier fashion show in Paris, and reached out to the children of the South African township of Soweto, the first international artist to be invited to its music school. Her stunning presence only adds to her appeal. People magazine has voted Vanessa-Mae one of the "50 Most Beautiful People in the World," and FHM named her one of "The World's 100 Most Beautiful Women."

Born in Singapore on October 27, 1978 - she shares a birthday with the first international violin superstar, Niccolò Paganini - Vanessa-Mae moved to London with her family when she was four, began classical violin studies the following year and made her professional debut on the international stage at the 1988 Schleswig-Holstein Festival in 1988, the same year she made her concerto debut in the U.K. with London's Philharmonia Orchestra. Her classical career was a prodigy's dream - the youngest violinist ever to record the Tchaikovsky and Beethoven violin concertos, a world tour with the London Mozart Players during the Mozart bicentennial year, great reviews from international critics - and she had three classical albums to her credit when she was only 13 years old. It was her interest in new arrangements for violin of her favorite classical melodies that led Vanessa-Mae to seek more than the traditional repertoire could offer. The result of that quest was The Violin Player and the string of successful crossover discs that followed.

An explosive live performer, Vanessa-Mae stars in an intensive touring program that has taken her around the world several times over. She has visited over 50 countries, including performances in many spectacular venues such as the Kremlin Palace in Moscow, the Acropolis in Athens, an outdoor pyrotechnic extravaganza in Dubai, and stadiums in Beijing and Shanghai. Beyond the bounds of typical concert venues, Vanessa-Mae is constantly bringing music to new places and new people. She was the first foreign performer invited to play the U.S. national anthem at Wrigley Field and Comiskey Park in Chicago. She did the same at the World Alpine Ski Championships in Vail, Colorado, where she performed two concerts, one of classical and the other of fusion music. She has performed at the Ajax arena in Amsterdam to a football crowd numbering 60,000, provided the climax to the International Go-Karting championships in Helsinki, and performed at the opening race of the F1 Grand Prix season in Melbourne. She also performed as featured artist at the opening ceremony of the 2002 Para Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Vanessa-Mae also has appeared in many rock festivals the world over, including shows with Michael Jackson, one of which saw her carried aloft by the ecstatic crowd at the end of her performance. She made her U.S. debut in Times Square, when she hopped spontaneously onto a passing yellow taxi, in the climax to a live performance seen all over the world. She gave the first-ever concert on the famed frozen lake of St. Moritz in Switzerland, making a spectacular entrance by delta-gliding down to the stage from a 2400m mountain. She performed exclusively for the 26 heads of Asian-European governments as well as Queen Elizabeth II and other members of the Royal Family at the official closing of the asem2 Conference at Buckingham Palace.

Vanessa-Mae was the only foreign artist invited by the Chinese to perform at the pivotal moment of Reunification of Hong Kong to China at midnight. She also opened the first ever Classical Brit Awards as well as the MTV Asia Awards. She is passionately involved in charity work as well. Through her close links with the Red Cross, Vanessa-Mae has visited the organization's field units in Kenya and Cambodia, participated in one of its TV ad campaigns and given several fund-raising performances.

The worldwide embrace of Vanessa-Mae is a compliment returned in her new Sony Classical album Choreography. The music draws its inspiration from the rhythms and pulses of dance cultures from around the world - the Argentinean tango, the Spanish bolero, the tribal dances of Africa, the complex allure of Indian music - and creates a new challenge for the remarkable young beauty who changed forever the way audiences hear the violin.

DISCOGRAPHY the violin player (1995)
Vanessa-Mae's debut pop album established her as a world star, racing up the pop charts in over 25 countries, as well as breaking new ground for instrumental music.

the classical album 1 (1996)
Proving her determination not to turn her back on her classical roots, this release couples core repertoire by German composers Bach, Brahms, Beethoven and Bruch. It instantly became the fastest-selling classical recording ever, and won Vanessa-Mae the World Music Award for 'Best-Selling Classical Artist'.

storm (1997)
Following in the vein of The Violin Player, Storm takes the violin on an even greater adventure of styles, including rock, disco, acid jazz and flamenco influences.

china girl (the classical album 2) (1998)
Vanessa-Mae goes back to her Chinese roots for her second classical album which features a unique and beautiful mix of eastern and western melodies, including an arrangement of Puccini's favourite Nessun Dorma, and Happy Valley, a composition commissioned for the re-unification of Hong Kong to China.

the original four seasons (1998)
Vanessa-Mae's stunning new arrangement of Vivaldi's classic features Laureate, her own hand-picked orchestra consisting entirely of international award-winning players.

the classical collection - part 1 (2000)
The long-awaited re-release of Vanessa-Mae's impressive early classical recordings, made between the ages of 11 and 13. These astonishing performances of virtuoso classics established her as a prodigious classical star long before expanding her horizons into the world of pop.

subject to change (2001)
An even more radical departure than her previous non-classical albums, subject to change, as its title suggests presents a new, contemporary, dance-influenced Vanessa-Mae

best of (2002)
A taste of Vanessa-Mae's incredible cross-over career to date offering samples of her most innovative and popular works.

Artist's Website:

www.vanessa-mae.com/