Nicola Benedetti

Benedetti was born in West Kilbride, North Ayrshire, Scotland, to an Italian father and an Italian-Scottish mother.[1] She started learning to play the violin at the age of four.[2] At age eight, she became the leader of the National Children's Orchestra of Great Britain.[3] By the age of nine, she had already passed the eight grades of musical examinations while attending the independent Wellington School, Ayr,[4] and, in September 1997, began to study at the Yehudi Menuhin School for young musicians under Baron Menuhin and Natasha Boyarskaya in rural Surrey, England.[5]

At the end of her first year (1998), she played solo in the school's annual concert at Wigmore Hall, and performed in London and Paris as a soloist in Bach's Double Violin Concerto with Alina Ibragimova. She played in a memorial concert at Westminster Abbey celebrating the life and work of Yehudi Menuhin.

Nicola has an older sister, Stephanie, who is also a violinist and a member of the pop group Clean Bandit.

In 1999, Benedetti performed for the anniversary celebrations at Holyrood Palace with the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland in the presence of The Prince Edward.

In 2000, Benedetti performed with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Scottish Opera.

She played to the Prince again in 2001 when she performed a concerto with the London Mozart Players at St. James's Palace. Subsequent performances followed with the City of London Sinfonia, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Scottish Opera, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, etc.[6]

In August 2002, she won the UK's Brilliant Prodigy Competition, broadcast by Carlton Television. She left the Menuhin School shortly after and, at the age of 15, began studying privately with Maciej Rakowski, the former leader of the English Chamber Orchestra.[7]

In spring 2003, Benedetti, invited as a soloist by the London Symphony Orchestra, participated in the recording of the DVD titled Barbie of Swan Lake at Abbey Road Studios. In October 2003, as the extra feature on this DVD, "Playing With Passion" was filmed and released by Mattel. BBC Scotland, using this DVD, created a documentary on Benedetti, which was broadcast on television in the UK in March 2004.

In September 2012, she performed at the Last Night of the Proms, playing Violin Concerto No. 1 by Max Bruch.[12] That same year, Benedetti was loaned the 1717 "Gariel" Stradivarius by London banker and London Symphony Orchestra Board member Jonathan Moulds.[13]

Apart from solo performances, Benedetti performs in a trio with the German cellist Leonard Elschenbroich and the Russian pianist Alexei Grynyuk.[14]

Benedetti was awarded honorary doctorates from Glasgow Caledonian University in November 2007 and from Heriot-Watt University in 2010,[15] and honorary degrees from the University of Edinburgh in November 2011.[16] She was awarded an honorary degree from the University of York[17] in August 2020.

She was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2013 New Year's Honours "For services to Music and to charity",[18] and was elected an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in March 2017.[19] In 2015, she was listed as one of BBC's 100 Women.[20]

In May 2017, she was presented with the Queen's Medal for Music, the youngest of the twelve people to receive the award since it was established in 2005.[21]

She was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2019 New Year Honours, "For services to Music".[22]

In 2020, she won the Grammy for best classical instrumental solo for Marsalis: Violin Concerto; Fiddle Dance Suite.[23]

• Official website
• Julie Amacher, "New Classical Tracks: Nicola Benedetti", Minnesota Public Radio, 9 May 2006
• On-line video interview for Czech TV, 5 December 2010
• Nicola Benedetti biography and albums at cosmopolis.ch