9.00pm, Saturday 8th August, Teatro Signorelli
Performing with Nina Kotova (violoncello) and Jean-Yves Thibaudet (piano).

Named BBC’s Young Musician of the Year in 2004, violinist Nicola Benedetti performs often with the UK‘s most important orchestras including the London Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Academy of St. Martins in the Fields.  She also made successful international appearances with the Deutsches Symphony Orchestra, Berlin and RTE National Symphony, Tonhalle and Vienna Tonkunstler Orchestras.

An exclusive Universal/Deutsche Grammophon artist, Nicola’s third album featured a new violin concerto, Lalishri, by John Tavener and Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending. Nicola’s second album, including Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto and From Ayrshire, a piece written for her by James MacMillan, received a unanimously positive response reaching No. 1 on the BBC Music charts and named “Disc of the Month” by Classic FM. Her debut album featured Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto No. 1, the work which catapulted her to nationwide fame after she performed it to win the title of BBC Young Musician of the Year.

Born in Scotland of Italian heritage, Nicola began violin lessons at the age of five. In 1997, she entered the Yehudi Menuhin School, where she studied with Natasha Boyarskaya. After leaving the Yehudi Menuhin School she continued her studies with Maciej Rakowski in London. She is currently taking lessons from Pavel Vernikov in Vienna.