In August 2010, she told The Telegraph, "I am British, but realistically there is no way I could represent my own country, but because my natural father is Thai, they have accepted me." She registered as a Thai alpine skier. Vanessa-Mae stated that she "started skiing around the same time as I began playing the piano, at around four, before moving to the violin at five", and that it had been her "dream to be a ski bum since I was 14." In 2009 Vanessa-Mae took up residence in the Swiss alpine resort of Zermatt. The site claims that her total album sales make "her the biggest-selling solo violinist in the chart". The Classical Album 1 reached 244, Storm reached 135 and her debut mainstream album The Violin Player is the 76th best selling. In 2017, ClassicFM compiled a list of the 300 best selling classical albums in the 25 years it has been running. Her 1997 album China Girl: The Classical Album 2 included two pieces in which she shared a writing credit: Violin Fantasy on Puccini's 'Turandot' and Reunification Overture, marking the reunification of China and Hong Kong. Vanessa-Mae has occasionally recorded her own compositions. In April 2006, Vanessa-Mae was ranked as the wealthiest young entertainer under 30 in the UK in the Sunday Times Rich List 2006, having an estimated fortune of about £32 million. Presto" during the opening ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Paralympics. On 7 March 2002 Vanessa-Mae performed a variation of Antonio Vivaldi: The Four Seasons – "Summer: III. In June 1999 she played at the Michael Jackson & Friends concerts in Seoul and Munich. She was managed by her mother until Vanessa-Mae fired her in 1999. She appeared on the 1997 Janet Jackson album The Velvet Rope playing a violin solo on the song "Velvet Rope". Her first pop-style album, The Violin Player, was released in 1995. Vanessa-Mae returned to London and entered London's Royal College of Music.Īt age thirteen, Vanessa-Mae became the youngest soloist to record both the Beethoven and Tchaikovsky violin concertos, according to Guinness World Records.
At the age of eight Vanessa-Mae embarked upon an intensive period of study with Professor Lin Yao Ji at the National Conservatoire of Music in Beijing. After adoption by a British father, she moved to London at the age of 4 where she began playing the violin, having already started the piano in Singapore. Vanessa-Mae was born on 27 October 1978 in Singapore, to a Singaporean mother Pamela Soei Luang Tan and Thai father Vorapong Vanakorn.