Internationally recognised and respected but Scottish to her core, shes dedicated to advocating world-class music making and innovating new ways to bring it to audiences.. Despite global success, however, she insists she could not afford to own the instrument. Since 2012 she has played the Gariel Stradivarius violin. To say that musicians have felt frustrated and dispirited these past months is not saying enough. Benedetti: Ive never stopped loving my former boyfriend, enedetti's home fixture to raise music funding, Nicola Benedetti performs intimate gig in the Ayrshire house she grew up in. This website and associated newspapers adhere to the Independent Press Standards Organisation's On Monday evening, the festival announced that Valery Gergiev, the Russian conductor who is a close friend and ally of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, had stepped down as its honorary president. Calum Stevenson, 23, won Portrait Artist of the Year. Now the Scottish star soloist is preparing for a Prom, where she will perform Prokofievs Violin Concerto No. Nicola Benedetti is one of the most sought-after violinists of her generation. A devoted chamber musician, Nicola collaborates with cellist Leonard Elschenbroich and pianist Alexei Grynyuk, who have been performing as a trio since 2008. Her ability to captivate audiences with her innate musicianship and spirited presence, coupled with her wide appeal as a high-profile advocate for classical music, has made her one of the most influential classical artists of today. Other season highlights include engagements with LA Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, play-directing the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and tours to Spain with the Philharmonia Orchestra as well as Artist in Residence at this years Aldeburgh Festival. Read about our approach to external linking. The Benedetti Foundation is a music education charity established in 2019 by violinist and dedicated advocate Nicola Benedetti CBE. What about the Baltic countries and eastern Europe? This is needed so that they can develop a sense of security and identity. It was a memorable evening for the Scottish-born violinist, who also took home a Grammy Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo. rental house in winslow, az by owner. She works with orchestras in Europe and America as well as with Alexei Grynyuk, her regular pianist. Nicola Benedetti: Elgar Violin Concerto album art work. Nicola Benedetti says her first love is music and her second love is educating people through the art of music. Her ability was recognised when she was a child, including the award of BBC Young Musician of the Year when she was 16. The move places her close to relatives for the first time since she was a child; shes a 15-minute drive from her sister (and fellow violinist) Stephanie Benedetti, along with her 1-year-old nephew Nico and 3-year-old niece Sienna, who received her first miniature violin for Christmas. Do we all really have to be the same? Readers comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. And I expect a lot from them.. Comments have been closed on this article. I didnt win the Tchaikovsky Violin Competition, I didnt win the Joachim Competition thats not what I won, she said. In March 2022, Nicola became the Director Designate of the Edinburgh International Festival, becoming Festival Director on 1 October 2022. Unlike her immediate predecessors, Benedetti has no experience running large arts festivals but has built up a significant reputation as an arts educator and ambassador for classical music, particularly with younger musicians and schools. Nicola Benedetti arriving for last years Edinburgh international festival. [It] brings millions together through the basic act of listening and thousands together through the act of making melody, rhythm and harmony in the practice and service of collective expression. 4. They have an great desire to feel loved and appreciated in every part of their lives. Nicola begins her 2022-2023 season with a performance of the Marsalis Violin Concerto with the RSNO at the BBC Proms and Mendelssohns Violin Concerto with Kazuki Yamada and the CBSO. 2 last fall with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. At eight, she became the leader of the National Children's Orchestra of Great Britain. [26], In 2020, she won the Grammy for best classical instrumental solo for Marsalis: Violin Concerto; Fiddle Dance Suite. Unsurprisingly from such a tireless campaigner and educator, thats not quite all: Benedetti has filmed five video lessons on Salut dAmour for her YouTube channel, inspiring lockdown practice material for violin or viola students of any age. It combines intensely high-quality musicianship and compositional skill with an absolute mission and a mantra of communication.. That made an already quite lonely profession a bit more lonely.. Its going to be paramount to our success. The pair have long enjoyed a close friendship and musical relationship, and they both believe in fighting, above all, for one thing: music education. Read our, {{#verifyErrors}} {{message}} {{/verifyErrors}} {{^verifyErrors}} {{message}} {{/verifyErrors}}. This site is part of Newsquest's audited local newspaper network. 1 by Max Bruch. Her most recent album Baroque (2021), recorded at Battersea Arts Centre celebrated the joy of Vivaldi, Corelli and Geminiani after a long period of silence for the music industry amid the coronavirus pandemic. FABIO LUISI conducts. After a year and a half, with so much cancelled and no opportunity to get together, can you imagine how excited theyre going to be? Benedetti enthuses. I think this should be able to be said, while separately you are calling out and appropriately prosecuting wrongdoing, in a way equally uncompromising in dealing with any mistreatment of children, or women, or men. I feel like Ive become a lot more confident over time as a violinist, she said. What do we want from the world? We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments. It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse. Its not that we stopped loving each other, it just turned into a different kind of love. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. These adverts enable local businesses to get in front of their target audience the local community. Others dont. To hear that in Scotland was incredibly heart-warming. She wouldnt be drawn on specifics of programming, but expect a bigger emphasis on Scottish voices and, because of sustainability targets, deep dives into a more select group of international orchestras. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com. 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. Magisterial one moment, wry the next, Hough is a whole orchestra in himself, and not a note is wasted. Nicola Benedetti Founder and Artistic Director Nicola Benedetti is one of the most sought-after violinists of her generation. In addition, Nicola has received nine honorary degrees to date. Benedetti enters this role at a time when British arts organizations are struggling. That process involves the disarming of prejudice, she said, but doing so in a way that still absolutely has integrity, that maintains and preserves the integrity of the art forms that we have presented and the tradition weve upheld for 75 years, and by not apologizing for what we do, not trying to change what we do., Benedetti, 35, is the first Scot and the first woman to lead the festival since it began in 1947. The violin Nicola plays is called the Gariel, made in 1717 by Stradivarius. inaccuracy or intrusion, then please Past performances include Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw, Edinburgh International Festival, Alte Oper, Frankfurt, the Ravinia Festival, 92nd Street Y, New York and City Hall, Hong Kong. We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse. ", "Nicola Benedetti awarded Queen's Medal for Music", "Benedetti wins best solo award at Grammys", "ISM honours Nicola Benedetti CBE with 'Distinguished Musician Award', "Yet another string added to Benedetti's bow with RCS president role", "Benedetti: I've never stopped loving my former boyfriend", "Violinist Benedetti, 18, to perform in La Jolla", "Sting adds another string to his bow as Sir Paul takes a bold stride into the world of classics", "Nicola Benedetti: from prodigy to professional", "Nicola Hits The Top Spot With New Album", "Nicola Benedetti Announces New Album With Wynton Marsalis", United Kingdom in the Eurovision Young Musicians, National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nicola_Benedetti&oldid=1140996093, Commanders of the Order of the British Empire, People associated with Glasgow Caledonian University, People associated with Heriot-Watt University, People associated with the University of Edinburgh, People associated with the University of York, People educated at Wellington School, Ayr, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2022, Official website different in Wikidata and Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 22 February 2023, at 20:51. Sistema Scotland is a standalone charity and as an organisation there are an infinite number of differences with Venezuela, Benedetti says. You need that in an artistic leader. The arts can help with that., Nicola Benedettis new album Baroque is released on Decca Classics on July 16. Her violin concerto to a score by the jazz trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis also won a Grammy that year. Through July she has been presenting, with her Benedetti Foundation, Baroque Virtual Sessions - a three-week early music summer school online; baroque music is generally agreed to date from between around 1580 to 1750 - for all ages, levels and degrees of interest. And the best friend shes made around the world? Her experience in promoting Scotlands cultural scene to audiences around the world will be invaluable and I wish her every success.. She will succeed Fergus Linehan, an Irish arts administrator who staged his first festival in 2015, in October. Her ability to captivate audiences and her wide appeal as an advocate for classical music has made her one of the most influential artists of today. Benedettis vibrant, beefy full-throttle tone is made for the concerto, and shes an assertive soloist, never disappearing into the glowing textures the London Philharmonic weaves around her. BBC Scotland, using this DVD, created a documentary on Benedetti, which was broadcast on television in the UK in March 2004. Do you know this baby? The appearance makes Benedetti the first classical solo artist to perform at the Grammy Awards ceremony in 10 years, which is surely another milestone in the 32-year-olds musical career. When youre flying 90 people from anywhere in the world to Edinburgh, I would like audiences to really understand why we chose them, she said. Sospiri is beautifully done, Benedettis tone silky and contained yet electric; its an initially bleak picture of despair that lifts just slightly into something hopeful at the end. The Benedetti Foundation is a Scottish company limited by guarantee with charitable status. You can make a complaint by using the report this post link . If we dont, perhaps we should be asking ourselves deeper questions: why do we not feel curiosity? Other stars recognised on the night included composer John Williams, who won Best Instrumental Composition (and his 25th Grammy) for his masterpiece Star Wars: Galaxys Edge Symphonic Suite, and flute-playing sensation Lizzo, who took home the award for Pop Solo Performance following her powerful rendition of Truth Hurts. She reckons that when we emerge from the pandemic, music and musical education have a crucial role to play. To mark the occasion, she opted for an energetic rendition of Bye Bye Breakdown (watch in full below), which was written by American jazz composer, Wynton Marsalis. Nicola Benedetti's zodiac sign is Cancer. This festival was founded on principles of reconciliation and the ideals of art transcending political and cultural fracture.. Mar 29, 2022. Conductors with whom Nicola has worked include Marin Alsop, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Ji Blohlvek, Karina Canellakis, Christoph Eschenbach, Ivn Fischer, James Gaffigan, Jakub Hra, Kirill Karabits, Kristjan Jrvi, Vladimir Jurowski, Cristian Mcelaru, Zubin Mehta, Andrea Marcon, Gianandrea Noseda, Michael Tilson Thomas, Robin Ticciati, Vasily Petrenko, Donald Runnicles, Thomas Sndergrd, Pinchas Zukerman and Jaap van Zweden. Johann Sebastian Bach Jude Kelly, founder of gender equality charity, the Wow Foundation, and previously the Southbank Centres first female artistic director, called Benedettis appointment a huge step.Until recently, she said, conductors in the classical world were saying women cant really conduct, or they can conduct Mozart but not Beethoven. His painting of Benedetti will now be displayed at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh. This music was intended to be understood and easily communicable. 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[23], 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. If your priority in life is not to play your instrument to the highest possible level, I would not encourage people to go into that environment, Benedetti said, but then defended the schools specific commitment to excellence. Too many times in my life Ive seen, Lets have the whole nation playing the violin in two years, and people saying, Our world will be fixed if that happens, Benedetti said of the organizations constructive role within the wider education ecosystem. She has even restarted sporadic lessons, with the violinist Andrea Gajic, to help regain confidence after a wrist injury that forced her to pull out of a residency last summer at the Aldeburgh Festival in England. For many, the appointment came as a surprise. But for Benedetti, the more significant change has been psychological: feeling grounded enough in her technique to free up and really explore, even in the fastest, most intricately patterned corners of her repertoire, like Wynton Marsaliss Violin Concerto, written for her in 2015 and reprised by Benedetti on many occasions. The great unknown is how much, in a really tricky climate, the Benedetti factor will end up benefiting the festival, said Brian Ferguson, an arts correspondent for The Scotsman. Nicola was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2019 New Year Honours list, awarded the Queens Medal for Music in 2017, the youngest ever recipient, and was appointed as a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 2013 in recognition of her international music career and work with musical charities throughout the United Kingdom. 2023 BBC. Violinist Nicola Benedetti has announced a new series of ' With Nicky ', her education video series which aims to support and educate young musicians with practice tips and inspirational guidance. Its dangerous and deeply unhelpful to everybody involved. She played in a memorial concert at Westminster Abbey celebrating the life and work of Yehudi Menuhin. He had a real spirit for change, for making stuff happen, and was very, very ambitious about owning something, and about making money, Benedetti said, adding, hed be the first one to say that, hes not bashful at all about that.. Editors' Code of Practice. [10] Following a public and political outcry, McConnell bowed to the pressure and telephoned Benedetti to acknowledge her success. The uncomfortable but necessary position of the festival is one where natural tensions lie.. Winner of the GRAMMY Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo in 2020, as well as Best Female Artist at both 2012 and 2013 Classical BRIT Awards, Nicola records exclusively for Decca (Universal Music). Sign up for exclusive newsletters, comment on stories, enter competitions and attend events. Her ability to captivate audiences with her innate musicianship and spirited presence, coupled with her wide appeal as a high-profile advocate for classical music, has made her one of the most influential classical artists of today. 2 at the Proms on 7 August; bbc.co.uk/proms and is artist-in-residence at the Edinburgh Festival, August 14-21; eif.co.uk. IF BENEDETTI IS AMBITIOUS, that stems from her father, Gio. Both of those truths need to be able to live alongside each other.. Nicola Benedetti 2 years ago Happy Holidays from Nicky and the Benedetti Foundation. Nicola Benedettis most acclaimed releases include her 2019 recording of Wynton Marsaliss Violin Concerto and Fiddle Dance Suite, her 2016 album of Shostakovich and Glazunov Violin Concertos, and her 2012 Silver Violin album which put the Korngold violin concerto at its heart, creating an almost viral effect among violinists. [22] In 2015, she was listed as one of BBC's 100 Women. He said: "When I saw the Portrait Artist of the Year show advertised I thought I would go for it. [27][28], She was awarded the 2021 ISM Distinguished Musician Award. In 2019, Nicola formalised her commitment to music in education when she established The Benedetti Foundation. What science tells us about the afterlife. Two years later, in the 2019 New Year Honours, she was awarded a CBE for services to music. In partnership with The Benedetti Foundation, Benedetti will release a new video on her YouTube channel once a month, starting with tips around . For people in the live performance industry, its difficult not to draw those comparisons and feel youre being unfairly penalised.. READ MORE:Benedetti's home fixture to raise music funding. Nicola Benedetti is the first Scotland native and the first woman to serve as director of the storied Edinburgh International Festival. We are doing this to improve the experience forour loyalreaders and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. Salut dAmour sounds fresh, and is played with an understated sigh that draws the ear in. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. There is a sense that personal connections come first for Nicola Benedetti. Nicola Benedetti performs Paganini's Caprice No. Sam Pittis Edinburgh is twinned with the city of Kyiv and this action is being taken in sympathy with, and support of, its citizens, it said. Nicola took home her first Grammy Award in January 2020, winning the Best Classical Instrumental Solo for her recording of Wynton Marsalis Violin Concerto and Fiddle Dance Suite. Nicola Benedetti, the award-winning Scottish violinist, is to take over as director of the Edinburgh international festival, becoming the first woman to run the event. Violinist Nicola Benedetti stunned audiences at the 62nd Grammy Awards Premiere Ceremony last night with an elegant solo performance. Are we actually looking to hear some origins of Ghanaian drumming, for example, not just a generic Africa as if its a country? Get involved in exciting, inspiring conversations with other readers. Nicola Benedetti has released 12 albums. Benedettis goal of bringing in broader audiences is one that was shared by her predecessor, Fergus Linehan, who incorporated pop music into the festival for the first time, in 2015. She said: Leonard and I literally communicate every day still, were extremely close. It was certainly a special night for the Scottish-born virtuoso, who also took home a Grammy Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo, for her stunning recording of Marsalis Violin Concerto and Fiddle Dance Suite. Benedetti, a Grammy and Brit awards winner, is also the first Scot to direct the festival since its foundation in 1947, adding to the dramatic impact her appointment is likely to have on the events wider popularity and fame. If you are dissatisfied with the response provided you can When and where was Nicola Benedetti born? 4am - 7am, Violin Concerto in A minor (2) About. It originated in Venezuela as a social programme aiming to give disadvantaged children new horizons, motivation and self-discipline through music; over the decades its effectiveness has been widely praised. And I expect a lot from them., It will be one of the hottest tickets in town, pop music into the festival for the first time, in 2015. Benedetti enthuses. Subsequent performances followed with the City of London Sinfonia, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Scottish Opera, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, etc. She won BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2004. The violin was Edward Elgars instrument, and when he was composing he thought as a string player: you can hear the idiomatic shaping of lines, the relishing of sonorities, in everything he wrote. I always thought that she was keen to expand in that direction, said Richard Morrison, the chief culture writer for The Times of London, adding, that did rather shock me, that shed be prepared to devote quite so much of her time and energy to that huge project.. In 2020, the festival was in effect cancelled for the first time in its history, producing a handful of online-only events; last year, there were a reduced number of in-person events, with much smaller audiences, but with heavy investment in digital streaming of its productions. [24], She was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2019 New Year Honours, "For services to Music". Shes inherited her fathers uninhibitedness. Think how much more fun that made the afternoons, says Nicola. She added: Occasionally I have played at a surprise birthday party for his mother and I always invite him to every concert that I do thats in London, but its an unbelievable gift and privilege that Im eternally grateful for., READ MORE:Nicola Benedetti performs intimate gig in the Ayrshire house she grew up in. She delivered an assured performance of the Szymanowski concerto with the conductor Karina Canellakis in Berlin, finding a meaty yet tender sustained sound. Nicola Benedetti was born in Scotland - in West Kilbride - in 1987 and began playing the violin at the age of four. "But if I had to choose between the cat and the violin the 2million Stradivarius would have to come first.". Since its launch, the Foundation has worked with over 50,000 participants, age 2-92, from 103 countries through its transformative in-person workshops and online sessions for young people, students, teachers and adults. As she launches her new album, the star violinist is frustrated at the restrictions on live performance, but is determined to bring music to the masses regardless. June 30, 2022 . Teddy Jamieson, senior features writer for The Herald in Scotland, said of Benedetti, Shes always been very serious about what she does, and really interested in the place music has in society its role, its worth. That, coupled with her undimmed energy as a self-starter, resulted in the Benedetti Foundation, a music education project she started in 2019, which provides large-group opportunities for string players of all abilities.