AS one of the most famous violinists in the world, Tasmin Little has made it her mission to make classical music accessible to all.

And what better way to do it than by getting more than a million people to download her music for free.

Appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2012 Birthday Honours for services to music, Tasmin decided to do some incognito busking, inspired by an experiment by musician Joshua Bell, and the experience changed her life.

She resolved, there and then, to bring music to people who were not likely to enter a concert hall, developing an on-line project she named the Naked Violin.

Tasmin says: “When I was young, I was generally quite a bored child at school and I hadn’t really found what I wanted to “Then, when I found I had a talent for music, it transformed my life. I went from somebody who was intelligent but not very focused to somebody that was absolutely driven by a passion to play my instrument.

“I wanted to pass that passion on.”

The Naked Violin began in 2008 with the release of a free on-line download of Tasmin playing a number of classical tracks.

“Radiohead had done something similar at about the same time,” she tells me, “but with an honest box for people to pay what they wanted. I put my new CD on-line for free and waited to see what might happen.

“Almost straight away I couldn’t believe the volume of traffic and within three or four weeks we must have had a quarter of a million downloads. It’s steadily continued over the years and although I haven’t looked for quite a while we must be close to a million.”

The project won the 2008 Gramophone/Classic FM Award for Audience Innovation, and was also featured in an episode of The South Bank Show.

“But what really gladdened me,” Tasmin continues, “was the messages of support and people telling me it had really opened up their eyes to the world of classical music. That somehow I had opened that door for them. That was such a great feeling and it still is.”

Next month Tasmin will be hoping to open more doors at the Mercury Theatre in Colchester as part of Roman River Music’s season of pre-festival concerts.

Performing alongside eminent pianist Piers Lane, Tasmin will plays some of the greatest music written for violin and piano including Beethoven’s Spring Sonata and Szymanowski’s Violin Sonata in D minor.

Born in London, Tasmin is the daughter of actor George Little, who is perhaps best known for his role of the Reverand Edward Ruskin in Emmerdale.

She discovered the violin at quite an early age following a bout of chicken pox.

“I was off school for a while and was pretty bored,” she says, “so I taught myself how to play the recorder. After that I really wanted to learn another musical instrument and a friend of my mother’s suggested the violin.

“I loved it straight away. The feel of the instrument but mainly the noise it made when you drew the bow across the strings. It was the most incredible sound and right away I said to my mother I want to play that.”

Realising a lot of work would be required if she was to master her instrument, Tasmin put her heart and soul into practice and that, coupled with her undoubted natural talent for the violin, led to a few local concerts where she impressed the audiences with playing.

“I just made rapid progress in a short space of time,” Tasmin adds. “I was playing quite complicated pieces and I think the Yehudi Menuhin School could see there might be potential there.”

She attended the prestigious music school on a scholarship from the age of eight until she was 18 and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.

“It’s nor for everyone,” she explains, “and people do leave but I thought it was great. I suppose I was quite lucky because my parents were nearby but I was just enjoyed playing so much it a dream place for me.”

While still at the school, Tasmin got her first big exposure to the world of classical music by entering the BBC Young Musician of the Year.

“When I entered I was just 16,” she reveals, “and I was the youngest in the string section. That was a really interesting point in my life because up until then I had been judging myself alongside the other pupils at the school and not at a national level. When I got to the Strings Final I was really pleased with what I had achieved and then a few years later I entered another competition and made that final so I knew I was on the right track.”

Her first professional performance as a soloist was in 1988 with The Hallé and two years later she made her first appearance at the BBC Proms in 1990, where she has appeared regularly ever since.

Today Tasmin is perhaps the country’s most famous and in demand solo violinists having performed with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic and released more than 20 albums, many of which on the Colchester classical music label, Chandos.

“When I was ready to record Elgar’s Violin Concerto,” she says, “I thought who do I want to do this. It had to be a record label that had a speciality for fantastic British music and a label with real integrity so I rang Chandos.

“Literally within 24 hours the whole deal was done with one of the best conductors in the country in Andrew Davies and one of the best orchestras in the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. It was an absolute dream come true and I’ve been with Chandos ever since.”

• Tasmin Little with Piers Lane Mercury Theatre, Balkerne Gate, Colchester.

March 5. 7.30pm.

£24 to £8. 01206 573948.

www.mercurytheatre.co.uk