And classical music is in crisis ....

Vanessa-Mae tops young rich list

Singapore-born violinist Vanessa-Mae Nicholson is the wealthiest young entertainer in the UK, according to the Sunday Times Rich List 2006. In the latest annual guide to the richest people born or living in the UK, published on Sunday, Ms Nicholson's wealth is estimated at £32m.

Also featuring in the top 10 of richest entertainers aged under-30 are the four members of the rock band Coldplay. Led by singer Chris Martin, each member of the group is said to be worth £25m. Both Vanessa-Mae and Coldplay sell millions of albums around the world. In second place among the young entertainers is Kiera Chaplin, the 23-year-old Belfast-born granddaughter of comic actor Charlie Chaplin.

RICHEST YOUNG ENTERTAINERS
1. Vanessa-Mae - £32m
2. Kiera Chaplin - £30m
3. Guy Berryman - £25m
4. Jon Buckland - £25m
5. Will Champion - £25m
6. Chris Martin - £25m
7. Karen Elson & Jack White - £20m
8. Orlando Bloom - £14m
9. Daniel Radcliffe - £14m
10. Kate Winslet - £12m
Source: Sunday Times Rich List 2006

Worth £30m, Ms Chaplin has a 30% stake in Hollywood production company Limelight Films. She is also president of the company behind the website webforjetset.com, aimed at helping the super-rich source the must-have helicopter and Ferrari, or finding a reliable bodyguard.

The 18th annual Sunday Times Rich List profiles the 1,000 richest people and families in the UK. It comes to its figures based on a person's identifiable wealth, including land, property, other assets such as art and racehorses, or significant shares in publicly quoted companies. This year it takes a £60m fortune to make it into the top 1,000, 20% higher than last year's £50m qualifying mark.

From BBC News story today.

* To visit Vanessa-Mae's web site (if you must) follow this link.

Image credit - Henley Festival Image owners - if you do not want your picture used in this article please contact me and it will be removed. Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
If you enjoyed (or were horrified) by this post take An Overgrown Path to Is recorded classical music too cheap?

Comments

Anonymous said…
do we know whether V.M. is on the list from her own performing revenues and investments, or did she also perhaps come from a wealthy family and/or marry rich?
9:38 pm
Pliable said…
Vanessa-Mae's parents divorced when she was very young and she has been adopted by her step-father. She was born Vanessa-Mae Vanakorn (she added Nicholson to her name when she was adopted by her English lawyer step-father) in Singapore and is half Thai and half Chinese, but moved to the UK when she was four.

She began playing the piano (her mother is a professional pianist) at three, and won the British Young Pianist of the Year competition when she was eight, but decided to concentrate on the violin, which she took up aged five. At 10 she was performing with orchestras, and was a child prodigy in the mold of Mozart and Mendelssohn.

She is one of the most spectacular of young recent concert violinists, combining classical and modern music and her own compositions. Like Nigel Kennedy, she is sometimes criticized for the publicity machine which surrounds her.


From Adoption.com
7:40 am
Anonymous said…
Is she worth that much, we do not think so, ask the times where they got that infomation from, ?
"the official vanessa mae fan club 1995" we should know
www.blogger.com
3:17 pm
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