Born Vanessa-Mae Vanakorn Nicholson in 1979 to a Thai-Chinese couple living in Singapore, she took her first piano lesson at the age of three and moved to violin two years later. Vanessa-Mae was raised in London, where she first performed with an orchestra (the London Philharmonic) in 1989. The concert was recorded, as were two other works between 1990 and 1992, when the violinist toured with the London Mozart Players.

Moving to a solo career but staying on the EMI label, Vanessa-Mae released The Violin Player in 1994. The album began to pick up steam in popular-music quarters, and made several world-wide charts. By then a citizen of England, she was nominated for a BRIT Award in 1996 as Best British Female. Storm followed in 1998, and a year later she returned with The Original Four Seasons & The Devil's Trill Sonata. ~ John Bush