Royal Albert Hall and IMG Artists present: Nicola Benedetti– 25 September 2013, Royal Albert Hall
2 November, 2012
Winner of the recent Classical Brit Award for Best Female Artist in 2012 and described a ‘risk-taking performer’, violinist Nicola Benedetti is right at the top of the classical music world and regularly captivates audiences and critics alike with her musicality and poise. Now one of the most sought-after classical violinists in the world performs at the Royal Albert Hall on Wednesday 25 September 2013 for an exclusive one-off concert.
Nicola has an ability to communicate and enthrall audiences with dynamic and energy-filled performances wherever she plays. She made her debut at the BBC Proms in 2010 and made three appearances during the 2012 Proms season, including the prestigious Last Night of the Proms but this is Nicola’s first non-orchestral concert at the Royal Albert Hall. Throughout her career, Nicola’s desire to perform a broad variety of repertoire and reach a wide audience has made her one of Britain’s most innovative and creative young violinists.
This special concert is presented by the Royal Albert Hall and IMG Artists as part of the Hall’s growing commitment to promote more events itself and provide new and diverse visitor experiences for as wide a range of music lovers as possible. As a charity, the Hall looks to provide access and opportunity in the arts as well as championing youth music and Nicola will also be engaging with the Hall on education initiatives for young people within the venue as part of its extensive public benefit remit. Nicola is fiercely dedicated to music education and through her work has helped demonstrate the power that music can have in transforming the lives of young people.
Nicola Benedetti said “It is always a great pleasure and honour to play at the Royal Albert Hall. My experiences in this unique hall have been numerous and consistently exhilarating and memorable. I greatly look forward to my first ever non-orchestral performance there and, most specifically, a chance to engage with the venue's fantastic education department to develop some initiatives that will allow me to share my experiences in teaching and in music education”
Jasper Hope, Chief Operating Officer at the Hall, said “It is with a combination of both pleasure and privilege in equal measure that we welcome the supremely talented Nicola Benedetti back to the world’s most famous stage. A virtuoso performer at the top of her game, she will no doubt enthrall the audience with her skill and showmanship. The goal of our programming is always to provide the most memorable visitor experiences and the maximum public benefit and I can think of no better person than Nicola to help us continue to deliver both.”
Nicola will be performing repertoire yet to be announced.
Notes to editor:
For more information, please contact Sean Carrigan on 020 7959 0531 or email seanc@royalalberthall.com.
Listings details:
Nicola Benedetti at the Royal Albert Hall, Wednesday 25 September 2013, 7.30pm
Tickets: £15- £49.50 (plus booking fee) - on sale Friday November 2nd at 9am
Box Office: 020 7589 8212 or book online at www.royalalberthall.com
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is the world’s most famous stage. Its breathtaking auditorium hosts over 370 shows a year by the world’s greatest artists. The magical atmosphere combined with inspired artists creates legendary events.
Opened in 1871 as part of Prince Albert’s vision for a centre for the Arts and Sciences, the Hall is a registered charity which operates without public funding, remaining true to his founding ambitions within a modern context. Extending the brand with 200 events outside the auditorium, the Hall has broadened its appeal to younger, diverse audiences whilst still engaging its existing customers.
The Hall also offers the Elgar Room, a state-of-the-art small-scale performance space which hosts performances of classical music, jazz and world music, comedy, dance and hush, a series of gigs for just signed bands throughout the year. In the main auditorium, it offers the Albert Sessions, an initiative that encourages up and coming acts to play at the Hall by offering reduced rental fees to promoters and lower ticket prices to encourage younger audiences to visit the Hall. It also works extensively with schools, young people, disadvantaged groups and partners such as Music For Youth through its Education programme, reaching over 100,000 participants each year as part of its extensive public benefit remit. It has also been appointed by the Arts Council as one of the country’s regional music education hubs.
For more information, please visit www.royalalberthall.com/www.facebook.com/royalalberthall/ http://life.royalalberthall.com
Registered charity number: 254543
Nicola Benedetti
Violinist Nicola Benedetti has captivated audiences and critics alike with her musicality and poise. Hilary Finch recently wrote in The Times, ‘it was thrilling to hear and watch Nicola Benedetti in a truly risk-taking performance that lived so much in the body and fused the sinews of the violin and the nerve-system of the player.’
Throughout her career, Nicola’s desire to perform a broad variety of repertoire and reach a wide audience has shown her to be one of Britain’s most innovative and creative violinists. Nicola’s choice of the Szymanowski Violin Concerto for the BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2004 was just the beginning of her focus on less-often programmed repertoire. She has recorded newly commissioned works by John Tavener and James Macmillan, worked on jazz-influenced repertoire with Wynton Marsalis and others, and explored authentic baroque performance. And whilst she is a highly sought performer on the world platform, Nicola is also fiercely dedicated to music education. Through her work with such organisations as Sistema Scotland, she has helped to demonstrate the power that music has in transforming the lives of young people.
In recent seasons, Nicola has performed with virtually all of the UK’s major orchestras, including the London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Philharmonia, Royal Scottish National, Hallé, Royal Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Bournemouth Symphony, and City of Birmingham Symphony orchestras. Outside of the UK she has played with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Deutsche Symphony Orchestra in Berlin, Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich, Orchestre Philharmonique de Montpellier, Russian National Orchestra, Het Brabants Orkest, KBS Symphony, Simon Bolivar Symphony in Caracas, and Japan Philharmonic, as well as the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Toronto Symphony, and Vancouver Symphony orchestras, as well as the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa.
Nicola’s busy schedule has seen her work with a number of conductors, such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Stéphane Denève, Christoph Eschenbach, Valery Gergiev, Alan Gilbert, Jakub Hrusa, Louis Langrée, Andrew Litton, Jiří Bělohlávek, Sir Neville Marriner, Diego Matheuz, Kristjan Järvi, Paavo Järvi, Mikhail Pletnev, Donald Runnicles, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Mario Venzago, Pinchas Zukerman, and Jaap van Zweden.
Nicola’s 2012/13 season was immediately preceded by a performance at BBC’s Last Night of the Proms, which featured her interpretation of Bruch’s Violin Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Jiří Bělohlávek. Other highlights of the season include a tour with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra with Miguel Harth-Bedoya, as well as appearances with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra with James Gaffigan, Royal Scottish National Orchestra with Peter Oundjian, Hong Kong Philharmonic with Jaap van Zweden, and Singapore Symphony with Neeme Järvi. She also returns to the Dallas, Pittsburgh, and Indianapolis symphony orchestras to play Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D Major.
Nicola frequently performs in recital and will make appearances this season at the Dresden Musikfestspiele, the Sapienza – University of Rome, and in Montreal at the Maison Symphonique. Previously, she has given recitals in London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hong Kong, Paris, Sacile, New York, Boston, and Washington D.C.
Nicola is also a devoted chamber musician and often gives concerts with her trio, both in the UK and further afield. Along with cellist Leonard Elschenbroich and pianist Alexei Grynyuk, she will undertake an extensive tour of Scotland in March 2013, which will include performances at the Edinburgh Usher Hall and Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. Nicola and her trio have also performed at LSO St Luke’s, Istanbul Festival, Schloss Elmau, West Cork Chamber Music Festival, and at the Ravinia Festival. In addition, the trio embarked on a summer 2012 tour of South America, which included performances in Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo and Lima. Nicola has also played chamber music at the festivals of Verbier, Moritzburg, Lockenhaus, Prussia Cove, and Tuscan Sun in Cortona with Jean-Yves Thibaudet.
Winner of Best Female Artist at the 2012 Classical BRIT Awards, as well as the Young British Classic Performer Award in 2008, Nicola has released five CDs with Universal/Deutsche Grammophon. In 2011/12, she released her first recording on the Decca Classics label, a disc of baroque violin masterpieces, entitled Italia. Her most recent recording, Silver Violin, was released in Autumn 2012 and features the Korngold Violin Concerto along with cinematic-inspired pieces by Shostakovich, Korngold, Williams, and others. Nicola’s debut Universal/Deutsche Grammophon album included Szymanowski, Saint-Saëns, Massenet and Brahms with the London Symphony Orchestra, followed by a second release featuring works by Mendelssohn, Mozart, Schubert and Macmillan with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Nicola’s third album was comprised of newly commissioned works by Tavener and Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the fourth featured works by Sarasate, Fauré, Rachmaninov, Pärt and Ravel. The fifth featured Tchaikovsky and Bruch concerti with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and Jakub Hrusa.
Nicola has taken part in many prestigious events, including performances at Windsor Castle for Her Majesty the Queen, the 2012 Ryder Cup Handover Ceremony, opening of the Scottish Parliament, the G8 Summit at Gleneagles and for Comic Relief’s “Classic Relief” concert. In addition to her performance and recording activities, Nicola has devoted herself to humanitarian causes and is a UNICEF Celebrity Supporter. Nicola is also widely respected for her commitment to working with young people. Since 2005, she has visited schools throughout the UK in conjunction with the CLIC Sargent Practice-a-thon, in which she encourages pupils of all ages to pick up their instruments and enjoy classical music. In 2010, she became involved in Sistema Scotland’s Big Noise project, a music initiative partnered with Venezuela’s El Sistema (Fundación Musical Simón Bolívar). As a Board Member and the programme’s official musical ‘Big Sister’, Nicola makes regular visits to Raploch, Scotland to conduct masterclasses and work closely with the children.
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. Upon leaving, she continued her studies with Maciej Rakowski and then Pavel Vernikov, and continues to work with multiple acclaimed teachers and performers.
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