Vanessa-Mae - The Red Hot Violin Player Homepage

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She can play the violin like nobody else: sensitive on beautiful classical pieces and dynamic while performing her techno-fusion popsongs. And (as her Chinese name "Mae" says) she is beautiful; two good reasons why Vanessa-Mae to me is THE Violin player.

I first heard about her when a friend of mine (who actually looks very much like Vanessa!) borrowed me her copy of the famous "Storm" album. I was totally impressed about the way Vanessa performed the title song: an pop-version of the Storm part of Vivali's Summer (The Four Seasons). More than the classical version, you can actually feel the thunder and winds! A few weeks later the video impression of Vanessa's Storm-World Tour was broadcasted on Veronica (Dutch commercial TV-station). Again, I was deeply touched by her performance and I felt I had to know more about this girl...

Vanessa-Mae Vanakorn Nicholson was born from a Thai mother and a Chinese father in Singapore on 27th October 1978 - which is actually also Paganini's birthday. Being a true child prodigy, she made her concerto debut in London at the age of 10. Two years later she was touring internationally. After a few classical recordings she made her debut as a postar with the "Toccata and Fugue in D-minor" single. In 1995 (still aged only 16!!) she launched her first pop-album, "The Violin Player", which has gone gold and multi platinum in numerous countries. In 1997 a second pop-album conquered the world: her famous "Storm" CD. Both her "Red Hot" and "Storm" tours were sold out completely and she every time she drove the crowds totally crazy with her dynamic personality and musical virtuosity. In a Zurich concert, in which she appeared between Status Quo and Rod Stewart, there was such an uproar that it took over 20 minutes to calm down the 50,000 audience before Stewart could start his show.

In the meantime Vaness-Mae worked on her first "Classical Album". Being released in 1996, it feautures violin concerto's of Bach, Beethoven, Brahms and Bruch. One year later her "Classical album 2" appeared: "China Girl", with the truly beautiful "Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto". Vanessa-Mae performed the "Happy Valley Overture", included on this album, live at the Happy Valley racecourse in Hong Kong at the handover ceremony in 1997, thus being the last foreign artist ever to perform under British government. In 1998 she launched her third "Classical Album", "The Italian Album" containing a masterful arrangement of Vivaldi's and Tatini's music. Her music also appears on the Disney "Mulan" soundtrack, "Reflection".

Most of Vanessa-Mae's classical pieces are performed using an over 200 year old classical violin, which she nicknames "Gizmo". The techno-acoustic pieces are mainly recorded using a "Zeta" electric violin, resulting in a typical powerful sound. Her style is dynamic, overwhelming and sensitive at the same time. This combined with her great technical skill, will make her one of the best violinists of our era.

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