24 Facts About Nicola Benedetti

Nicola Joy Nadia Benedetti was born on 20 July 1987 and is a Scottish classical solo violinist and festival director.

Nicola Benedetti's ability was recognised when she was a child, including the award of BBC Young Musician of the Year when she was 16.

Nicola Benedetti was born in West Kilbride, North Ayrshire, Scotland, to an Italian father and an Italian-Scottish mother.

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

Nicola Benedetti started to play the violin at the age of four with lessons from Brenda Smith.

Nicola Benedetti played in a memorial concert at Westminster Abbey celebrating the life and work of Yehudi Menuhin.

In 1999, Nicola Benedetti performed for the anniversary celebrations at Holyrood Palace with the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland.

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

Nicola Benedetti 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.

In spring 2003, Nicola 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.

BBC Scotland, using this DVD, created a documentary on Nicola Benedetti, which was broadcast on television in the UK in March 2004.

In May 2004, two months before her 17th birthday, Nicola Benedetti won the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition, performing Karol Szymanowski's First Violin Concerto in the final at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh, with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

The Times reported that Nicola Benedetti was snubbed by Jack McConnell, the then First Minister of Scotland, who thought that there was insufficient public interest to merit a personal congratulatory message.

That same year, Nicola Benedetti was lent the 1717 "Gariel" Stradivarius by London banker and London Symphony Orchestra Board member Jonathan Moulds.

Nicola Benedetti was chosen as the subject for the winner of the Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2021, Calum Stevenson, and this portrait now hangs in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

Nicola Benedetti was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 2013 New Year's Honours "For services to Music and to charity", 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.

Nicola Benedetti was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2019 New Year Honours, "For services to Music".

Nicola Benedetti was awarded honorary doctorates from Glasgow Caledonian University in November 2007 and from Heriot-Watt University in 2010; she was awarded honorary degrees from the University of Edinburgh in November 2011 and from the University of Leicester in July 2013.

Nicola Benedetti was awarded an honorary degree from the University of York in August 2020.

Nicola Benedetti was elected an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in March 2017.

Nicola Benedetti was awarded the 2021 ISM Distinguished Musician Award.

Nicola Benedetti received the 2023 Edinburgh Award, which is given to individuals who have made an important contribution to the city and brought it to national and international attention.

Nicola Benedetti was in a relationship with German cellist Leonard Elschenbroich, whom she met at the Yehudi Menuhin School of Music.

In March 2024, Nicola Benedetti announced that she was pregnant with her first child.