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Vanessa-Mae is a virtuoso violinist who has made an statement in both the pop and classical world with her blend of both streams of music in what is known as "techno-acoustic fusion".
Born in Singapore on the 27th of October 1978, exactly 196 years after the birth of one of history's greatest violinist, Niccolò Paganini, one might not be too surprised that Vanessa-Mae Vanakorn Nicholson is one of the greatest violinists of our time. Vanessa-Mae was born to Chinese mother, Pamela, and to a Thai father Vorapong Vanakorn, whom Pamela divorced when Vanessa-Mae was aged four. Shortly after the divorce, Vanessa-Mae was taken to London with her mother who re-married to a British Lawyer, Graham Nicholson. Pamela has played an important part in Vanessa-Mae's career - she is usually credited for discovering Vanessa-Mae's talent for music, and till her young adulthood, has been her manager till January 2000. Being a semi-professional pianist herself, Pamela has also been seen to accompany Vanessa-Mae on the violin for many performances.
Vanessa-Mae was born in the year of the horse in Chinese calender, which represents speed and loyalty, and her career has been just that. Her first encounter with music was at age three when she took up the piano at the urging of her mother. At aged five, her adopted British father, Graham Nicholson, encouraged Vanessa-Mae to take up the violin to accompany his viola playing. By the time Vanessa-Mae was eight years old, she was studying under Professor Lin Yao Ji at the Central Conservitoire in China. Though the course was supposed to last three years, Vanessa-Mae finished it in only a few months, and she returned to Europe to receive further training.
At aged ten, Vanessa-Mae gave her first concert with the London Philharmonia. In the same year, she traveled to Schlezwig-Holstein for master-courses with Professor Felix Andreyevsky in the Royal College of Music, and became the youngest person ever to attend the esteemed college. By eleven years old, she became the only child to graduate in the professional course.
Her first debut CD was recorded in October 1990, and released shortly in March 1991 when she was only eleven years old. This recording was done for the benefit of a UK charity and NSPCC. In 1992, she received her first electric Zeta violin. She was signed to EMI in 1994 to produce her first "techno-acoustic fusion" pop album. Shortly after the release, her new album, "The Violin Player", topped charts all over the world in over twenty countries. She was nominated for 'Best Female Artist' in the UK based BRIT awards in 1996, and was the first instrumentalist and classical musician to be nominated for this mainstream award.
"The Violin Player" was only the beginning of her recording career, she made many other albums to follow. After her pop album debut, she released a classical recording, "The Classical Album 1". In 1997, Hong Kong honoured Vanessa-Mae by inviting her to perform at the Hong Kong to China Re-unification Ceremony, making her the only non-native to do so. It also resulted in the release of another album "China Girl", in an attempt to discover her Chinese roots ever since the passing of her grandfather when she was fifteen. Shortly after that she released her second Techno-Acoustic Fusion album, "Storm", where she made an attempt at singing as well. Vanessa-Mae once again delivered her exceptional virtuostic violin playing in her third classical recording "The Original Four Seasons", which included Vivaldi's Four Seasons as well as Tartini's Devil's Trill Sonata.
In 2001 she released her third pop album, "Subject to Change", in which she experimented more with her vocal abilities along with a distinctly different sound altogether that has matured since her earlier pop albums. Her successes with chart-topping songs and classical hits were recognised in two compilation albums of her best recorded tracks in "The Best of Vanessa-Mae", released in 2002, "The Ultimate Vanessa-Mae" in 2003.
She is currently working on her fourth pop album, titled "Choreography". This recording promises exotic new beats and sounds from around the world.
Although Vanessa-Mae is only 24 years old, she has achieved tremendously throughout her career. In 1996, she was voted as one of the 50 Most beautiful people by the "People's Magazine". Vanessa-Mae is on the list of top earning women in UK, with a 1995 income of approximately £840 000 pounds on sales of 1.4 million records and tour. She currently lives in Kensington, London. No doubt, she remains to be an important and influential musician, in both the classical and pop world.
June 17, 2004.
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