Vanessa Mae takes on dance music

Vanessa Mae was born on Oct. 27, 1978, the same day as the great violinist Paganini more than a hundred years later. Like the master, she also plays the violin and while it would be almost sacrilegious to say that she does this like Paganini, it cannot be denied that she comes close, very close. She is also prettier, sexier and best of all, she is Asian and does all of us proud.

There is definitely some affinity with Paganini though in the artistry and dedication. But because this is the 21st century and because she is a young talent completely attuned to these technology-driven times, Vanessa Mae combines classical training and predilection with a very young, thoroughly hip approach to performing. This means that while she is capable of a truly expressive rendition of Vivaldi’s Four Season, her violin playing will also able to get kids dancing in clubs all over the world. And while the usual violinist can be found in a tuxedo in a concert hall, Vanessa Mae is in sexy designer togs gyrating to her own brand of fusion music on MTV.

She does more of the same in the new album Subject to Change. The sound of the entire collection is ambient but with a definite beat. It echoes the singing of monks in mountaintop monasteries where peace reigns uninterrupted in some instances and also gets off on a truly frenzied beat at times. But all throughout there is Vanessa Mae ably backed up by dance tracks playing her violin in a matter that moves, shocks, enchants and sends listeners getting off on a new groove.

Would Paganini approve? I don’t know. There are times when I am tempted to say, no, he wouldn’t. So why can’t she be like other violin players? But when I think of millions of kids everywhere who discovered the violin because they saw Vanessa Mae’s video on MTV and who are now discovering Paganini, Beethoven, Mozart and company thanks to her, I say, enjoy the fusion. Come to think of it, this 22-year-old girl is in fact doing more than anybody I can think of these days in keeping interest in the violin and also on classical music alive among young people. She proves that classical artists can be hip, land on People Magazine’s list of beautiful people and make lots of money.

Subject to Change features production by the cutting-edge European producer Youth and in some tracks also by Vanessa Mae. Just to give you an idea of the interesting contents, there are samples from the monks of the Dip Tse Chock Ling Monastery of Dharmsala, from Pupy y su Charanga by Felix Lagarreta and vocals by Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares. Vanessa Mae also makes her official debut as a pop singer in this album. She performs the vocals in the lovely tune White Bird. The video of this one must be fabulous.

Other cuts included in the album are the deceptively quiet opener Yantra, Picante, Destiny, Night Flight, Clear Like Ice, Laughing Buddha, Pasha, Solace, Love is Only a Game, Deep South and Jamais.

Vanessa Mae was born in Singapore, the child of a Thai father and a Chinese mother. Her parents divorced when she was four and she was brought up in London when her mother married a British lawyer. She got her musical talent from her mother who plays the piano. Additional influence came from her adoptive father who plays the viola. In fact, it was her adoptive father who encouraged her to take up the violin when she was five so they could play together. It was after this that Vanessa Mae made the switch from piano to violin lessons and was soon on her way to becoming a child prodigy.

Vanessa Mae was only 10 years old when she performed with a full orchestra, the London Philharmonia. Subject to Change is her seventh album. She recorded her first Violin, when she was 11 years old. This was followed by The Violin Player when she was 15. Other albums she recorded were The Classical Album 1, Classical Album 2 China Girl, Storm and The Original Four Seasons, which is her third classical release. She plays a Guadagnini violin that is 240 years old and is worth nearly half a million dollars.

I wonder, do you think there was ever a time when she was a child when she refused to go to her piano or violin lesson?