Her prodigious talent and impeccable manners have charmed audiences from the Royal Albert Hall to the Glastonbury Festival.

But Nicola Benedetti has lashed out at music snobs who have criticised her for popularising classical music.

The Ayrshire violin virtuoso who has released a series of mobile phone ringtones has insisted that nothing will blunt her desire to introduce classical music to a new generation.

Benedetti, who signed a £1m recording deal at the age of 17, spoke out in a frank interview posted on her official website.The 20-year-old also aimed her bow at the growing culture of instant gratification among youngsters who want fame but don't want to work for it.

The West Kilbride-born musician has notched up album sales to rival many rock and pop artists, and in 2004 appeared at Glastonbury, which usually hosts the likes of Radiohead, Coldplay and the White Stripes.

As a teenager she played on a DVD entitled Barbie In Swan Lake for toy giants Mattel and has authorised a series of ringtones featuring her playing Massenet, Brahms and Saint-Saëns.

But her attempts to bring symphonies to the PlayStation generation and willingness to record modern material have led some purists to sneer.

Fellow violin virtuoso Vanessa Mae also came in from criticism after the cover of her first single, Toccata & Fugue showed her emerging from the sea with a diaphanous white skirt clinging to her legs.

But Benedetti insists she has no intention of attempting to placate the critics.

"The whole thought that anybody can be insulted by the idea of something being popular is such a ridiculous notion to me," she said. "Just because something is popular, why should it necessarily be less valuable?"

Eyebrows were raised in the highly conservative world of classical music when Benedetti's album, Szymanowski: Violin Concerto No 1, featured a playalong karaoke track of Meditation by Massenet with sheet music downloadable from the official website.

But the former winner of the BBC's Young Musician of the Year has no regrets.

"I will always perform, play and record the music that I think is great and want as many people as possible to be aware of it.

"I want to use whatever opportunities I have to encourage as many people as possible to try this music out and to listen, not just to my music, but to the greatest symphonies and operas. There are many, many people in the world who have no idea about the music that I spend my entire life immersed in. That is such a shame."

Influential American music critic Christian Hertzog speculated that Benedetti could prove to be a "sexy flash-in-the-pan", while the Classical Source website has criticised her "sloppy", populist album packaging. "There are pages devoted to ringtones and 'thank yous', and there are credits for hair stylists but there is no information regarding recording dates," it said.

Benedetti makes frequent visits to schools across the UK and beyond in a bid to bring the magic of the great composers to young people, as well as espousing the traditional values of discipline and hard work.

She said: "I think that for young people the opportunity to be able to focus on something that takes a bit more concentration and time to understand is very important. A lot of people are moving away from the psychological mindset of having to put something in to get something out of it. Increasingly a lot of young people want to obtain things now, right now, here, at this moment. I don't think that is healthy."

Alan Gove, marketing director for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, claimed that Benedetti had orchestrated "a full-throttle public-relations campaign" to capitalise on her youthful appeal. "She, I think, very smartly realises, and her people smartly realise, that she lends herself to terrific photo shoots," he said.

Benedetti started to learn the violin as a four-year-old. By the age of 10 she was studying at the prestigious Yehudi Menuhin School in Surrey.

Her 2005 debut album flew to the top of the UK classical albums chart.

Crossing the classical divide

Nicola Benedettiis not the first artist to attempt to bring classical music to the masses.

With his lavatory brush hair, potty mouth and fixation with Aston Villa, self-styled punk violinist Nigel Kennedy's recording of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons rocketed to the top of the charts in the early 1990s.

Fellow fiddler Vanessa Mae was the youngest musician to record the Tchaikovsky and Beethoven violin concertos. Yet her breakthrough came through with the album The Violin Player, which aimed to bridge pop and classical music.

The Singapore-born virtuoso became embroiled in controversy after she took to performing in mini-skirts, skimpy tops and knee-high leather boots.

Child prodigy Charlotte Church was known as the 'voice of an angel' and performed for Pope John-Paul II and Bill Clinton. She later embarked on a pop career before settling down to have a baby with rugby star Gavin Henson.

Source: Scotland on Sunday