The Nation - Monday, March 07, 2005

World-renowned violinist Vanessa-Mae will perform at a benefit concert in Bangkok next month for victims of the December tsunami on the Andaman coastline, the organisers said yesterday.

The event is the final cultural highlight in the series “Bridges: Dialogues Towards a Culture of Peace” organised by the Bangkok Opera Foundation and the International Peace Foundation.

The concert is scheduled for April 5 at the Main Hall of the Thailand Cultural Centre, said Uwe Morawetz, chairman of the International Peace Foundation.

The Nation is a sponsor of the event.

Vanessa-Mae Vanakorn Nicholson is a virtuoso who has made a statement in both the pop and classical music worlds with her blend of both streams in what is known as “techno-acoustic fusion”.

She was born in Singapore on October 27, 1978, to a Thai father and a Chinese mother, and shares her birthday with Niccolo Paganini, one of history’s greatest violinists who was born exactly 196 years before.

Her parents divorced when Vanessa-Mae was four years old. Her mother later re-married to a British lawyer.

The “Bridges” series, which began in November 2003 and concludes next month, was held in Bangkok and other major provinces.

The series involved more than 200 lectures and dialogues, seminars, workshops and artistic performances aimed at finding creative resolutions for the growing threats of war and international terrorism. The participants include 28 Nobel laureates, international decision-makers, the media and local leaders in all areas of society.