Latest news with #NicolaBenedetti
Daily Record
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Nicola Benedetti brings first solo tour for a decade to Ayrshire
Grammy Award winning violinist Nicola Benedetti will embark on a 14-date tour of the UK and Ireland in October. Ayrshire musician Nicola Benedetti will bring her first solo tour in over a decade to Ayr. The Grammy Award winning violinist is set to embark on a 14-date tour of the UK and Ireland in October. An Evening with Nicola Benedetti and Friends will debut in Basingstoke on October 12 before taking to the stage at Ayr Town Hall on October 31. Combining solo performances with storytelling, Nicola will share a selection of shorter works - romantic, virtuosic and some Celtic and folk-inspired. The approach to these concerts will be intimate and personal, with Nicola joined onstage by close colleagues including Brazilian guitarist Plínio Fernandes and accordionist Samuele Telari. Speaking ahead of the tour, Benedetti said: "It has been over ten years since my last full tour of the UK and having recently come off maternity leave, I am particularly excited to perform in so many beautiful venues, reconnect with audiences I haven't seen in some time and play for and chat to people in a fun and personal setting. "I will be joined by fantastic musicians including guitarist Plinio Fernandes and accordionist Samuele Telari." Throughout the two-month tour, Benedetti will visit Basingstoke, Dundee, Dumfries, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Inverness, Glasgow, Ayr, Manchester, Dublin, London, Poole, Belfast and Harrogate. Repertoire will include Paganini's Caprice Nos 1 and 24; Sarasate's Carmen Fantasie and Navarra, and Wieniawki's Polonaise arranged by Steve Goss; Ponce's Estrellita and Maxwell-Davis' Farewell to Stromness arranged by Paul Campbell; Bloch's Prayer and Debussy's Beau Soir arranged by Simon Parkin, Maria Teresa von Paradis' Sicilienne arranged by Juliette Pochin and Jay Unger's Ashokan Farewell. This full programme will be released on Nicola Benedetti's next album on Decca Classics to coincide with the tour and will also include new commissions and arrangements of traditional Scottish music by piper Brìghde Chaimbeul. Born and raised in Ayrshire, Benedetti is Grammy award winning violinist and two-time winner of Best Female Artist at the Classical BRIT Awards.
The Herald Scotland
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
How Scotland's top young musicians blew me away
A couple of decades ago, I used to visit to see my girlfriend (now wife) performing as part of her piano degree programme. At the time I was studying English and politics along the road at Strathclyde Uni, and walking into the RSAMD (as it was then known) always felt like entering an entirely different world - one where being absurdly exceptional was just the starting point. Twenty years on, that feeling is very much still there. In the canteen that doubles as a waiting area for families, friends and performers, I watched proud parents take photographs of teenagers in smart shirt-and-ties and formal dresses, their faces an endearing mixture of excitement, anxiety and, for those who had already performed, relief. As I sat in the auditorium waiting for the afternoon session to begin, I was reminded that being a great performer isn't just about musical ability or the hundreds and thousands of hours spent practising. I was only there to watch and make notes, and have spoken at all sorts of events to audiences large and small, but even to me the room felt intimidating, with a huge Steinway grand piano glowing under the purple intermission lights, and the sense of anticipation growing with every seat that was filled. The nerves in the room were unignorable, and I couldn't help but wonder how it felt to be backstage, or in a nearby practice room, knowing that your time is coming – that in a few minutes, you'd have to walk out on that stage, in front of all those people, and pull out what you hope is basically the performance of your life so far. The session began with a video from violinist Nicola Benedetti who told the young musicians to relax, to trust themselves, and to let their performance 'go where it wants.' And then it was time for the music to begin. READ MORE First out was a young man from Shetland with a white shirt, polished shoes, and an alto saxophone. I was writing notes as he brought it to his lips to get started, and as he finished his first piece – Samba Triste – I looked down and realised that my pen had remained suspended in place, just a few millimetres from the page, and I hadn't even noticed. Next up was a singer from South Lanarkshire who combined the scale and emotion of Song to the Seals with the genuinely funny – and still enormously technically impressive – Taylor, the Latte Boy. She was followed by a mesmerising clarsach player whose instrument was almost the same size as her, and whose confidence even allowed for a few glances to the audience as her fingers flicked and fluttered across the strings. A violinist played a piece he had first come across on social media. I was reminded just how bizarre-looking a bassoon is up close, and just how amazing it can be made to sound in the right hands. On and on it went, with stunning performance after stunning performance. And of course there was the odd error – a note missed by a fraction, a vanishingly slight loss of dynamic control, or a finger not quite keeping up with the fireworks going off in a musician's brain. But all they did was reinforce just how magical it feels to sit in the room like that one, in one of the world's leading performing arts centres, and watch a bunch of kids demonstrating just how brilliant they really are.
The Independent
13-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Edinburgh Festival to focus on reconciling ‘complexities of truth'
The Edinburgh International Festival will this year focus on reconciling the 'complexities of truth', its director Nicola Benedetti has said. The event's theme is The Truth We Seek, and it will see more than 1,700 artists from 42 nations, including 600 from Scotland, take to the stage in Edinburgh from August 1 to 24. The festival programme was revealed on Thursday, and it features a wide range of performances, including music, theatre, class opera and dance, all tied in with the theme of 'truth'. Benedetti, a multi-award winning Scottish violinist, said the arts are in a position where they can separate fact from disinformation. Ahead of the programme's launch, she said: 'The arts are at an advantage with a problem like that, because what we're trying to get across is that talking about truth versus when you're talking about fact. 'Truth is something that encompasses a lot of different perspectives and encompasses past, present and future. Fact is something that you can observe and you can check and recheck. 'What we're trying to say as a festival is that you need the humility to be able to say, actually there's very little in life that you know for sure – you always need to be in a position of questioning everything you see, but we're also saying that today's world is far too lazy with checking and proving that. 'For our festival to ask the big questions like that and it to be in the air as people go into our shows and go into our performances, the performances themselves will only deepen your questioning of how do you do with and reconcile the complexities of truth. 'Our 2025 Edinburgh International Festival invites you to explore The Truth We Seek – a journey into the elusive nature of truth, in our personal and public lives. In an era of 'alternative facts' and manipulated narratives, the arts offer us something deeper: a poetic and metaphorical wisdom that is both more nuanced and more precise.' Benedetti, who was made an MBE in 2013 for her services to music and charity, said it is tough to pick any particular 'must-see' moments in the festival line-up, but said the opening show is one to watch. She said: 'I don't know where to start with what is unmissable. We kick off the festival with a really unconventional moment which is in the Usher Hall. 'It's a concert that's going to be an eight-hour performance with 250 singers featuring our Festival Chorus, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. 'There'll be an incredible exploration into the essence of truth from perspectives around the world, looking at how all religions actually speak a common, universal truth, so it's breaking down some of that disharmony. 'We also have an incredible performance in the old college quad, so it'd be really unusual in that it's a common dance performance.' Other festival highlights include opera incorporating circus performers for a fusion of music and acrobatics in Orpheus And Eurydice, and Breaking Bach – where hip-hop meets 18th-century period instruments. Succession star Brian Cox is also set to return to the Scottish stage for the first time in a decade, starring in Make It Happen, a satirical play written by playwright James Graham exploring Scotland's role in the global financial crash of 2008. The fictional account features a mix of characters in incidents inspired by real-life events, and Cox will play pioneering Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith. Despite funding uncertainty last year, Benedetti told the PA news agency: 'I would say we're in a celebratory moment right now, we're at the beginning of a three-year funding settlement, it's a really pivotal moment for culture in Scotland. 'With this many organisations, 251, being funded (through Creative Scotland) to the tune of £200 million, now is not the time to immediately start with the worry sentiment, it's the time for everyone to work together, to act as a collective and to galvanise the increased support for the arts. 'It's such an important part of our civic conscience, and for anyone and everyone, it needs to be there. 'So I would say that we have a really firm foundation now upon which to build over the coming years.' Last year, Benedetti said 'the toughest battle of all' is innovating while at the same time preserving tradition at the festival. Asked if this year's event has managed to strike the balance, she said: 'I think we have struck a good balance every single year, given the swirl of what's going on artistically around the world. 'We have to look at the quality of what's there and then do a sort of jigsaw puzzle with that perfect balance that we want to see of the new, daring, for the audiences that are willing to trust us and just try something versus those who want to see an outstanding international level of excellence of art performed on our stages.' Tickets are available to buy online from March 27, with free entry available for a range of people, including those with a disability. Early bird tickets are also available to Edinburgh International Festival members.
