Nicola Benedetti

Nicola Benedetti was born on July 19, 1987. She grew up in the small Scottish town West Kilbride. She has a brother and a sister. Both her parents are Italian born, but moved to Scotland as children. Her father, who had to learn English in the toddler’s class when he was eleven, worked hard, invented the “Benedetti cling-film dispenser”, became an independent businessman and a millionaire.

Her father had never been to a classical concert before she began to play the violin. At home, they listened to ABBA, Shania Twain and the Bee Gees.

Nicola Benedetti picked up the violin at four. She began violin lessons at the age of five with Brenda Smith. Both a natural talent and a hard worker, she was leading the National Children’s Orchestra of Great Britain at eight, had passed the eight grades of musical examinations while attending Wellington School in nearby Ayr at nine and entered the prestigious Yehudi Menuhin School in Surrey in September 1997.

It is not possible to mention all the steps and performances of her career. Here a few highlights: In 1998, Nicola Benedetti not only played solo at the Yehudi Menuhin School’s annual concert at London’s Wigmore Hall, she also performed Johann Sebastian Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins in London and Paris (at the opening ceremony of the 50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at UNESCO) with Alina Ibragimova (*1985 in Russia).

Photo of the Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti. Photo © Simon Fowler / Decca, 2012.

At thirteen, Nicola Benedetti performed Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with the Royal Scottish Orchestra. In 2004, she was the first Scot to win the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition and was afterwards signed by the famous artist agency IMG.

At the end of 2004, Nicola Benedetti signed a £1 million recording contract for six albums with Universal Classics, two of which for the prestigious Deutsche Grammophon. In 2012 followed an exclusive deal with Decca, another Universal label.

Her first album for Deutsche Grammophon was released in June 2005: Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto No. 1. The CD also includes works by Saint-Saëns, Massenet, Brahms and Tavener. Her subsequent albums: Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto followed in May 2006, recordings of works by Vaughan Williams and Tavener in September 2007, Fantasie in September 2009, Tchaikovsky and Bruch’s Violin Concertos in October 2010, Italia in February 2011, The Silver Violin in August 2012, My First Decade in September 2013, The Violin in 2013 and Homecoming in July 2014.

In September 2011, Nicola Benedetti accompanied the Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli at an open-air concert in New York City, performing a transcription of Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez.

Photo of the Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti. Photo © Simon Fowler / Decca, 2012.

Since 2008, in addition to her solo appearances and her work with orchestras, Nicola Benedetti regularly performs in a trio with her boyfriend, the German cellist Leonard Elschenbroich, and the Russian pianist Alexei Grynyuk.

There is a charming 2014 BBC portrait called Indian Serenade: Nicola Benedetti on tour with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, showing her and the orchestra on tour in Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai, with workshops for schoolchildren in each city. Led by conductor James McMillan, they performed Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture, Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 in each city.

Not only in India, but also in the UK, Nicola Benedetti has been a passionate advocate for music education, believing strongly in the power of music to transform lives. For years, she has been giving concerts and teachings in schools in the UK (Sistema Scotland and its branch The Big Noise in Raploch) as well as abroad, notably in Venezuela (El Sistema), always free of charge.

Nicola Benedetti plays a Stradivarius (called the Gariel, courtesy of Jonathan Moulds) made in 1717 and estimated at some £2 million.

Photo of the Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti. Photo © Simon Fowler / Decca, 2012.

Nicola Benedetti, violin, with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra: Homecoming: A Scottish Fantasy. BBC / Decca, July 2014. Order the CD from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com and Amazon.de. Order the MP3 from Amazon.fr. In mid-July 2014, Homecoming had already made it to number 19 in the UK (pop!) album charts. Nicola Benedetti wrote about her new album, that she tried to combine classical and Scottish folk music. Within that context, she demonstrated her admiration since childhood for Robert Burns, Scotland’s famous poet, who comes like Nicola Benedetti from Ayrshire, by recording three of his most loved songs. Max Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy was the key to this exploration of merging worlds, she wrote. In addition to the work of the German composer, you can for instance listen to Ae Fond Kiss, Auld Rob Morris and My Love Is Like A Red Rose by Robert Burns, several pieces of traditional folk music as well as short compositions by Phil Cunningham and James Scott Skinner. Sheet music by Max Bruch.

Nicola Benedetti: The Violin. Decca, 2013. Order the CD from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com, Amazon.de. The album includes compositions by Vivaldi, Vaughan Williams, Brahms, Pärt, Chopin, Tchaikovski, Massenet, Bruch, Monti, Hess and Gardel.

Nicola Bendetti: The Silver Violin. Decca, 2013. Order the album from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com, Amazon.de. The album topped the classical music charts and made it into the top 30 of the pop album charts.

Nicola Benedetti: Italia. Decca, 2011. Order the album from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com, Amazon.fr and Amazon.de. Italia includes works by the Italian Baroque composers Antonio Vivaldi, Giuseppe Tartini and Francesco Veracini. The violinist Nicola Benedetti is accompanied by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Christian Curnyn. Nicola Benedetti wrote about her encounter with Italian Baroque music, that it fitted her like a glove. Indeed, this may be her best album to date. Sheet music by Antonio Vivaldi.

Photo of the Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti. Photo © Simon Fowler / Decca, 2012.