DESCRIPTION:
Vanessa Mae, violin - 'The Storm' by Antonio Vivaldi
~ live performance - 1997 ~

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Vanessa-Mae Vanakorn Nicholson, known professionally as Vanessa-Mae (in Chinese: 陳美, Chén Měi), is an internationally known 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, who is now a Thai monk) and a Chinese mother (Pamela Tan). After her parents separated, her mother married Briton Graham Nicholson, and the family moved to England when Vanessa-Mae was four years old, but they separated many years ago. She grew up in London and is a British citizen. She was educated at the independent Francis Holland School in London.
Vanessa-Mae, born 27 October 1978, coincidentally shares her birthday with famed violinist Niccolò Paganini, who was born 196 years earlier on 27 October 1782.
Vanessa-Mae began playing piano at the age of three and violin at five.
She was particularly 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.[1] 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. Her first pop-style album, The Violin Player, was released in 1995. She appeared on the 1997 Janet Jackson album The Velvet Rope playing a violin solo on the song "Velvet Rope".
She performed in the interval of the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest in Birmingham.
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.
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. She has also been using a silver-gray Zeta Jazz Model electric violin since 2001. In addition to these two main violins, she sometimes buys violins and resells them later, giving the proceeds to charity. Occasional media appearances show her to be using a clear acrylic electric violin made by Ted Brewer.

(source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

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