Myleene Klass looked immaculately turned out and positively glowing as she switched on the Christmas lights in London on Tuesday.

Which must come as quite a smack in the teeth for other new mothers (NMs) of three-month-old children who are whey faced from lack of sleep, too tired to wash let alone style their hair or dress in anything more than spit-up splattered sweats.

In fact Myleene has eased back into work quicker than Paula Radcliffe pounded her way to victory in the New York marathon a fortnight ago.

When we spoke she was spending the day doing interviews to promote classical music for children and by 10.30 that night, an hour at which NMs have long since crashed out in the sofa or in bed, could be seen back on television, pressing the button for the midweek lottery.

The fact she has reportedly just quit the sofa beside Adrian Chiles on The One Show, seems to have been the only reduction in her work rate, which she maintained right up until she gave birth. She went into labour with her daughter, Ava Bailey Quinn, three weeks early as she drove away from the studio.

The 29-year-old performer even managed to carry on modelling for Marks and Spencer, proudly displaying her bump in a bikini before it was concealed by a piano for the later advert set on the Orient Express.

Myleene barely seems to have taken a breath, let alone maternity leave.

"I don't know why six months seems to be an ideal date. I don't think there is any easy time to leave your baby and go back to work," she says.

"Besides, I'm hardly going down the mines. She is really portable at the moment - although she did projectile vomit on my lawyer the other day, so she made her feelings felt about that meeting."

If anything Ava is quite the little whip cracker when it comes to her mother's work.

"Since she has arrived I have put her by the piano in the Moses basket and she listens to me practising. Bizarrely it is when I stop that she cries. It's just like having a piano teacher all over again."

With six generations of classical musicians on Myleene's father's side it would seem strange if Ava didn't respond to musical stimuli.

Her mother has been encouraging it since before she was even born.

"I didn't do it as pro-actively as some mothers to be but, during my radio show (she presents on Classic FM at the weekends), I would put the cans on my head and then stick a separate pair on the bump, so every single week she would become more accustomed to it. She would kick out at certain pieces and I was never sure whether it was because she liked it or she didn't.

"And when I was performing on stage at the Royal Albert Hall she kicked all the way through."

All of this brings us neatly to the reason we are chatting today. Myleene is on a mission to make classical music appealing to children as young as three - with a little help from Barbie.

Next January there will be a concert at Symphony Hall, Birmingham, featuring a presentation of Barbie movies accompanied by a live symphony orchestra.

The doll's positive influence has already been proven in the field of dance. The number of young girls attending ballet classes in the UK has increased by 15 per cent as a direct result of seeing her pirouetting and pliéing her way through films.

"If I'd had a chance to learn classical music through Barbie then it would have been more exciting sometimes than just sitting in the classroom," enthuses Myleene.

"When I first saw Barbie I wanted to put on a tutu and dance. Just think what might happen if a little girl sees a character she loves playing the violin!"

Myleene is passionate about introducing music to a younger audience and feels that a little spectacle in the presentation could give it the boost it needs.

"The average age of a symphony goer is 55 and I think that is an absolute disgrace," she says hotly. "But the approach to children has got to be different.

"There is such a thing as a bad classical piece to play to them, for instance if it is too slow or has no context. That would make me switch off. Give it to them like they did in Fantasia, give them a fun piece to explore rather than bashing them over the head with it.

"What I like about classical music is that the words aren't written so get to write your own stories. I used to get my pupils to tell me what they thought the music was about and I never got the same answer twice. One little boy said Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata was about a runaway horse, it does sound a little like cantering."

Myleene grew up surrounded by music. Her grandmother was an opera singer and her grandfather left her his violin, which she started playing when she was four, along with the piano. At 12 she started studying the harp.

"There were so many instruments in my house I can't remember a time when I wasn't playing. But I was never pushed into it. When I said I didn't want to play anymore my dad just locked the piano and said 'off you go'.

"I was about 15 then and I felt like I was missing out on lots of things. But then I started missing my friends in the orchestra. It was when I went to music school that things really started to click for me."

By the time she was 13 she was good enough to teach music to seven-year olds.

She attended the prestigious Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Royal Academy of Music, but swiftly realised that a career confined solely to performing classical pieces would be to restricting.

"At college there were people who would play for eight hours or more locked away in a room because that is what you have to do as a concert pianist, but I wasn't prepared to do that.

"I think it is important to be able to communicate and if you shut yourself away you are never going to have those skills.

"I wanted to do everything - be in a pop band, sing in the West End, be a teacher. I wanted to perform lots of different levels."

She worked as a backing vocalist for artists including kd lang, Michael Crawford and Robbie Williams and toured with Cliff Richard. She also performed on the West End stage in Miss Saigon.

Then she was catapulted to fame after winning a place with the group Hear'Say, the product of the very first star-manufacturing programme, Popstars.

Her pop career was high profile but short lived. The band barely lasted more than a year before splitting amid rumours of acrimony between Myleene and lead vocalist Kym Marsh.

It is only Kym and Myleene whose careers seem to have truly prospered since the break. Kym is a regular on Coronation Street while Myleene has thrown herself into presenting and punditry.

One legacy of her Hear'Say days has been her relationship with her fiance Graham Quinn, who worked as part of their security team.

Her career received a further boost as one of the most popular I'm a Celebrity contestants. She emerged from the jungle with a new image as both a pin up and good sport after tackling the challenges with gusto and standing under waterfalls in a skimpy bikini.

But she hasn't forgotten her musical roots, She continues to perform and produce albums as part of a deal made first with Universal Classics and Jazz and now with EMI Classics.

She says that it was "almost inevitable that I ended up in a pop band" but if her parents were worried that she was wasting her training, they were never less then supportive.

"The only time they have ever questioned anything I have done is when I went into the jungle. My mum didn't want me to eat bugs. But I am very much my father's daughter. I like to be adventurous, although leaping out of a helicopter on a bungee line was a first."

As well as being musically gifted Myleene is also bright enough that her Plan B was to go to Cambridge and read English Literature. She is currently studying astronomy at the Open University.

But her intelligence is allied to a fierce ambition and, if her post-natal performance is anything to go by, apparently limitless energy.

"I think it is important to experience as much as you possibly can. I've had the chance to perform for the troops in Afghanistan and for royalty at the Albert Hall. I've played Wembley, worked as a model for M&S, even though I am only 5ft 5ins, and met people like Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp.

"I have had to work hard to get where I am. I have had to knock on a lot of doors but that has just made me appreciate it all the more."

Barbie at the Symphony is on Symphony Hall on January 5, 2008. For tickets ring 0121 780 3333.