Vanessa-Mae was a 'wunderkind' before she became a superstar. The Director if the Royal College of Music described her as a  'true child prodigy, like Mozart and Medelssohn'. At 12, she made her first outstanding recording, which already included one of her own compositions in the form of a cadenza for a Mozart violin concerto. Her second album included her own violin transcriptions of Heifeitz, Kreisler and Paganini. Her third recording, an extraordinarily mature performance of the Tchaikovsky and Beethoven violin concertos with the London Symphony Orchestra, established her as the youngest ever to record both these concertos. Her fourth album, 'The Violin Player', released in 1995, was her first 'pop' album, for which she created her own 'techno-acoustic fusion' violin music, using both her 200-year-old Guadagnini and her electric violin. In autumn 1996, Vanessa-mae released her fifth album, effectively her fourth classical album, to launch a new series for EMI. The phenomenal speed of sales of 'The Classical Album 1' which sold half a million within two weeks of release, made her the fastest selling classical solo artiste.

    Vanessa-Mae's unique and brilliant dual recording career is also reflected in her career as a 'live' concert artiste. She tours the world extensively, playing in venues such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Royal Albert Hall, the Royal Festival Hall, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Salle Pleyel, the Salzburg Festival Hall, the Auditorio Nacional in Mexico, Hampton Court Palace and at rock festivals, performing her own 'techno-acoustyic fusion' concerts to massive audiences. In the year 1996-7 alone, she performed over 35 countries, touring numerous cities, many of them several times.

    Varied highlights include her televised US debut at Time Square seen all over the world, performing the first ever concert on the frozen lake of St. Moritz as well as for a 100,000 capacity audience at the G7 Conference in France. Vanessa-Mae also set a record as the youngest ever to address and perform for the Oxford Union and is the only artiste ever to perform on the Trocadero in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

    In the summer of 1997, the night of the handover (30 June 1997), Vanessa-Mae made international musical history as Hong Kong made political history with the premiere of her new work 'Happy Valley - The 1997 Re-unification Overture' at the Re-unification Concert at Happy Valley, the world famous race course. Her personal appearance was preceded by the spectacular Opening Parade around the race course, set to her music. Vanessa-Mae, British/Chinese (daughter of a Chinese mother and British adoptive father), who was the only foreign artiste invited to appear at this historic occasion and was the last foreign artiste to perform in Hong Kong under British administration.

    Vanessa-Mae's brilliantly successful dual-faceted career is admirable not only for the degree of enviable success she has achieved in both arenas, but also for the confidence and individualistic philosophy with which this extraordinarily gifted young artiste has pursued her musical instincts.

    At the time that she released her first pop album, she was chastised by a minority specialist press for turning her back on traditional classical repertoire and embarking on commercialized music. Vanessa-Mae has consistently scoffed at this criticism, maintaining that she will continue her classical career alongside her pop, even if the pop career were to gain recognition. She has also pointed out that the launch of a pop career for someone like her already commanding a prodigiously respectable classical career at such a young age was a brave risk. The number of failed pop acts every year speaks volume.

    Despite her caution, Vanessa-Mae's debut 'pop' album was a risk well-taken. The album achieved multi-platinum status world-wide and is the most successful debut instrumental pop album ever. She became the youngest and only instrumental artiste ever nominated for the Best Female Artiste in the BRIT awards.

    At 18, Vanessa-Mae has already been honoured with many prestigious music awards, the most recent of which include World Music Award for Best-Selling Classical Recording Artiste and the HMV Silver Clef Award for Top International Artiste.

    Vanessa-Mae released her second pop album of 'techno-acoustic fusion' violin music - Storm in 1997, and simultaneously she also continued to develop the Classical Album series. After 'The Classical Album 1' of German music and 'China Girl - The Classical Album 2', Vanessa-Mae released the Italian Album - The Original Four Seasons and Devils Trill Sonatas in 1998.

- Biography from 'China Girl - The Classical Album 2' with additional up-to-date statement in the last paragraph.