Vanessa-Mae Vanakorn Nicholson (born October 27, 1978 in Singapore), known on stage as Vanessa-Mae (in Chinese: ³ÂÃÀ, Ch¨¦n M¨§i) is an internationally known classical and pop musician. Her music style is self-described as "violin techno-acoustic fusion."
She was born to a Chinese mother and a Thai father. After her parents separated, her mother married Englishman Graham Nicholson. She grew up in London and is a UK citizen.
She began playing piano at the age of three and violin at five.
She was relatively famous in the UK throughout her childhood making regular appearances on television (e.g. Blue Peter) mostly involving very conservative classical music and style.
On entering adolescence Vanessa broke away from her parents' influenece and became known for her flashy, sexy style appearing in music videos in stylish outfits. Vanessa-Mae appeared on the Janet Jackson album The Velvet Rope playing a violin solo on the song "Velvet Rope".
Vanessa-Mae has received much acclaim and praise for her personal style and talents, but on the otherside has been the subject of controversy as well. Some critics have suggested that Vanessa-Mae's technical and musical abilities are in fact unspectacular and that she is merely a typical product of a music industry attempting to use sex appeal to sell commercialised classical music[citation needed]. Still others feel she is doing a disservice to classical music[citation needed]. She retorts that these critics are too traditional and ¨¦litist and because they are unable to appreciate her fusion of classical and pop music nor perform music themselves, they resort to vindictive cynicism. [citation needed]
Vanessa-Mae is sometimes compared to Finnish classical and pop musician Linda Brava. For example, English daily newspaper The Sun rated Linda above Vanessa in 1997.
In April 2006, Vanessa-Mae was ranked as the wealthiest young entertainer in the UK in the Sunday Times Rich List 2006. [1]
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Discography
Violin (1990)
My Favourite Things: Kids' Classics (1991)
Tchaikovsky & Beethoven Violin Concertos (1991/1992)
The Violin Player (1995)
The Violin Player: Japanese Releases (1995)
The Alternative Record from Vanessa-Mae (1996)
The Classical Album 1 (November 12, 1996)
China Girl: The Classical Album 2 (January 1, 1997)
Storm (January 1, 1997)
The Original Four Seasons and the Devil's Trill Sonata: The Classical Album 3 (February 16, 1999)
The Classical Collection: Part 1 (2000)
Subject to Change-Vanessa-Mae (July 17, 2001)
The Best of Vanessa-Mae (November 5, 2002)
The Ultimate (January 1, 2003)
Choreography (2004)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanessa_Mae
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