Acclaimed musician admits the novelty of being stuck

It was half her lifetime ago when Nicola Benedetti was hailed BBC Young Musician of the Year.

That was 16 years ago, and during the ensuing frenetic whirl of playing, recording and educating, the 32-yearold violinist has become one of classical music’s most in-demand performers, criss-crossing the world playing high-profile shows with prestigious orchestras, releasing a string of albums and championing music education.

Already, in recognition, she has been awarded an MBE, OBE and the Queen’s Medal for Music. It has been a breathless schedule that hasn’t given her a moment to pause. Until now. The coronavirus lockdown has forced Nicola to finally slow down, if not stop entirely, spending more time in her London home than at any point since she left Ayrshire in 1997 to pursue her music education at the Yehudi Menuhin School. It has, she says, been a strange experience.

“I’ve never had a period where I didn’t know what I was doing for this long since I was 14 or 15,” she said.

“That’s what’s been unusual for me, considering how long I’ve been on the treadmill with so many things I can do and lots of options in front of me. Because of that, it gave me a bit of a breathing moment that I would not have had otherwise.

“I’m always saying to myself if I could leave more space between the things I’m doing, that would be better for me. But I don’t know if this experience has made me think I should do that more or less, to be honest.”

Nicola was scheduled to play shows in San Francisco, Australia, mainland Europe and the UK over the next few months. However, these are no longer happening.

“I’m accepting of the fact it will be many more months until I’m back on stage. There’s nothing I can do about it,” said Nicola, who won a Grammy at the start of the year.

“I’ve already cancelled concerts that were three months away. If everything returns, it’s going to be a little bit of a nightmare trying to see what we can schedule back in.” While not being on the road constantly is a new scenario for Nicola, only having herself for company is not.

“I’m used to that, because all year round I’m travelling all over the place on my own, so I’m used to this type of environment.

“I don’t have a routine of seeing family every weekend or anything like that. The lockdown has, strangely, not been all that revelatory, and I feel part of the reason for that is because I’m used to just working wherever it is I’m working.

“My life is so not routine already, and because of that there is not much that has felt