Vanessa-Mae

At the age of 13, Vanessa-Mae had already recorded three highly-praised classical albums. These contained a wide range of repertoire from masterpiece concertos by Tchaikovsky and Beethoven (the youngest artist ever to record these works), virtuoso showpieces by Paganini, Wieniawski and Sarasate to new arrangements of her favourite classical and pop melodies. In studio working on her debut pop album, at the age of 15, she created a completely new genre of music. With the release of The Violin Player in 1995, at the age of 16, she discovered an ecstatic audience of millions worldwide. Her brave approach of presenting the violin in a new style caused controversy among some traditionalist critics but its enormous popularity around the world among music lovers of all kinds established her as a world star and subsequently inspired a wave of new artists following in her footsteps. She has now sold over 10 million albums, holding over 40 international awards for both pop and classical recordings, and her concert specials have been broadcast in over 100 countries. She has also collaborated with a wide range of different artists, in many different capacities, from featuring on the title track of Janet Jackson’s album Velvet Rope, producing an instrumental hits album for Japanese superband Glay to participating in a jazz-funk album Xpectation with Prince.