SHE’S the Singapore-born violin virtuoso who sexed up the stuffy classical music world as she pouted in concerts while putting bow to string.

But today Vanessa Mae Vanakorn Nicholson, who has sold 10 million albums worldwide, wants to show off another talent – as a skier.

Now based in the alpine sports centre of Zermatt, Switzerland, the sultry siren hopes to represent Thailand as a downhill skier at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, reported Britain’s Daily Telegraph yesterday.

Vanessa Mae, as she is professionally known, was born in Singapore to a Thai father and Singaporean mother. She describes music as her “life-long passion” and skiing her “life-long hobby”.

The 31-year-old told the paper: “I started skiing around the same time as I began playing the piano, at around four, before moving to the violin at five.”

She announced her plans for her Olympic bid last week.

And there have been whispers since then that she may be doing it to prove she is more than the musical genius shaped by her over-protective mother, Ms Pamela Nicholson.

Her parents divorced when she was four, which is about when she started picking up both music and skiing.

Her mother remarried a Briton and the family moved to England.

Ms Nicholson had been Vanessa Mae’s manager until the violinist turned 21, when they had a falling-out.

Vanessa Mae told the Telegraph that it was skiing or, rather, her mother’s order to banish it from her life, that led to their parting.

At age seven, the girl accepted it when her mother banned her from horse riding for fear that it would damage her hands.

But when she told her to do the same with skiing, she refused.

Vanessa Mae described an incident that left a shocking impression on her.

“My mother was worried I’d hurt myself skiing and end my career. So I asked her why she was perfectly happy to have me paraglide in a harness onto a frozen lake in St Moritz to play.

“Her reply was tough to hear.”

She continued: “She said, ‘Vanessa, if you crash and die doing that, at least you will have died for your art.

You will be respected for dying for your art. And you will get a bigger obituary if you die for your music rather than skiing.’

Shocked

“Then she reminded me that she had invested many years in my career.

“That, I wouldn’t accept. I was always so obedient that I think my mother was shocked that I had developed
a voice.”

The violinist said she is not trading in music for skiing.

“Music will always bemygreatest passion,” she said.

“There are still the concerts. But now I am no longer recording an album a year as I did in my teens.

“To be honest, that became a treadmill.

The endless touring, the promotions. By the time I got to 20, I was no longer enjoying it.”

She is realistic and knows the pressure she is facing, that the public may expect her to perform well on skis as with the violin.

“But it has been my dream,” she said. “And I am hoping people will accept I just want to give it my best.

To even get to the Olympics, I have to qualify for the 2013 World Championships and the standard is high. I know I am always going to be a few points behind the
top guys. I am taking a plunge.

“I am British, but realistically there is no way I could represent my own country, but because my natural father is Thai, they have accepted me.”

Meanwhile, Vanessa Mae is still keeping busy with her music.

In three weeks’ time, she will play a concert in Germany.

She also has a new project. She said: “It involves dance and music – not me dancing, you understand.

Taking up ballet at 31 isn’t an option. But I have long been keen to amalgamate my style of music with dance.

But I no longer feel the pressure to keep pushing out ever more albums.”

She added: “Don’t underestimate how important my music is to me. It is still my life’s passion... It is just that I am more relaxed now. Having time for things in
life that I missed...

“These days, I get up at 5.30am to ski. Sipping coffee, overlooking the Matterhorn.

What could be better than that?”