Biography

It’s tempting to assume that Nicola Benedetti’s career took off only after she won the title of BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2004 with a ravishing performance of Szymanowski’s First Violin Concerto. The truth is far more impressive – this assured and complete musician, born in Scotland to Italian parents, was performing in public from the age of eight, when she led the National Children’s Orchestra of Scotland. At ten she played in front of thousands in Westminster Abbey for Yehudi Menuhin’s memorial service and at 14 she won the UK Brilliant Prodigy Competition broadcast nationwide on ITV. At 15 she decided to leave the Yehudi Menuhin School to start a career as a concert soloist, and with the support of her parents, her accompanist Alison Rhind and her teacher Maciej Rakowski, Nicola has never looked back.

After winning BBC Young Musician, 16-year-old Nicola signed a five-album deal with Deutsche Grammophon/ Universal, and her first release was the Szymanowski concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra under dynamic young conductor Daniel Harding. The CD also contained works by Chausson, Saint-Saëns and a trio of contemplative miniatures by Massenet, Brahms and John Tavener, whose ‘Fragment for a Virgin’ was written specially for Nicola. The disc reached the top of the BBC Music charts, and Nicola became a household name. Her second album, released in 2006, featured the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, a perennial favourite, but performed with such freshness and directness that it feels like a new piece. That was teamed with a new work by fellow Scot James MacMillan, who conducted the Academy of St Martin in the Fields for this recording.

Past seasons have included Nicola’s BBC Proms debut and performances with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia and the City of London Sinfonia on a tour of China. Recently Nicola has performed with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Academy of St Martins in the Fields and made successful international debuts with the Deutsches Symphony Orchestra, the RTE National Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre de Picardie. In North America, Nicola performed with the Vancouver Symphony and Indianapolis Symphony and gave recital performances in Boston, Milwaukee, Kansas City and at the Seattle Chamber Music Festival.

During the 2007-2008 season Nicola will make debut performances with the London Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, Tonhalle and Vienna Tonkunstler Orchestras. In addition she will return to the Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra and London Mozart Players and will also tour Spain with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Nicola looks forward to collaborating with many internationally acclaimed conductors such as Sir Neville Marriner, Kristjan Jaarvi, Alexander Lazarev, Pietari Inkinen, Stephane Deneve, Alan Buribayev and Andrew Davies. Nicola will perform recitals and concerts in North America, including engagements with the Colorado, Virginia, and Phoenix Symphony Orchestras. She will also continue with an extensive recital and festival programme throughout Europe and the UK.

Nicola is a fantastic advert for the joy of music-making and an enormous encouragement to other young players – she never turns down an invitation to visit a school or listen to children play. She has been named as an ambassador for classical music by Sheffield City Council, and is recognised for her work with charities from CLIC Sargent to UNICEF. She has just received an honorary degree from Glasgow University. Her talent, drive and enthusiasm have won her some very high-profile supporters, from composer Sir John Tavener, with whom she has a fruitful creative working relationship, to jazz trumpeter and broadcaster Wynton Marsalis, who heard her at the Academy of Achievement Summit in New York last year. Marsalis has taken a real interest in her career and is always ready to offer advice from across the Atlantic. Nicola counts herself lucky to have such experienced guides to the world of classical music. ‘Both John and Wynton are incredibly successful in different ways, but neither makes me feel “this is the way to do it”. Their message is: be yourself. Do your thing, at your own pace, and don’t feel you have to be comparing yourself with everybody out there.’ She has definitely taken their advice to heart.