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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, Niccol� 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.
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