Vanessa-Mae to perform in the Baltics

VILNIUS - Vanessa-Mae, 32, the world’s most popular and sexiest violinist, will give concerts in Riga (Arena Riga, Nov. 17) and Vilnius (Siemens Arena, Nov. 18). This British celebrity was born in Singapore. Everybody who has been to that city-country knows that stewardesses of Singapore Airlines are beauties and that Singapore dwellers are very cosmopolitan and innovative. Vanessa-Mae and the music performed by her have all those features mentioned in the previous sentence.

As if to add more mysticism to her success story, she was born on Oct. 27, which is the birthday of Niccolo Paganini. Luckily, their birthdays are separated by almost two centuries and they are not fierce competitors. The lovers of mystical dates can also point out that in 1917, Vilnius-born Jascha Heifetz, the world’s most famous violinist of the 20th century, made his debut in Carnegie Hall on Oct. 27.

The mother of Vanessa-Mae was Chinese while her father was Thai. After her parents separated, her mother married a Briton and the family moved to the UK when Vanessa-Mae was four years old. Her full name, Vanessa-Mae Vanakorn Nicholson, includes surnames of her father and step-father. She started to play violin at the age of five. She already played piano then. Spending her childhood in London, she often performed classics on TV shows. She is included in the Guinness World Records as the world’s youngest soloist to record both the Ludwig van Beethoven and the Piotr Tchaikovsky violin concertos, at the age of thirteen. Vanessa-Mae was ranked among the top 10 of music’s greatest child prodigies of modern times, together with Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder and Britney Spears.

When Vanessa-Mae grew up, she started to use her natural Thai sex appeal, playing on stage a more pop-style version of classical music as well as her interpretations of some modern pop hits. She broke boundaries between the classics and pop and merged both styles of music. Vanessa-Mae describes herself as a techno-acoustic fusion violinist.

Vanessa-Mae was ranked as the wealthiest young musician under 30 in The Sunday Times rich list in 2006 - $64 million - not bad for the age of 28! She has her own opinion about doing business - it was rumored by British tabloids that when she was 21, she sacked her mother as her manager. Vanessa-Mae also has another talent – she was asked to represent Thailand’s downhill skiing team in the 2014 Winter Olympics, although some would doubt there would be many Thai skiers. Her participation in the Olympics still has to be approved by the International Ski Federation. Vanessa-Mae apparently tried to represent Thailand in the 2002 Winter Olympics but then Thailand said she had to give up her British passport.

Her current The Violin Magic Period Tour follows the following route: Germany – Czech Republic – Russia – Latvia – Lithuania. There were some free seats during her concerts in the Czech Republic. This means that it is possible that some tickets may be available even on the day of her concert, although you never know and it is better to buy tickets in advance.