Page 35 - Virtual Benedetti Sessions Coverage Book

with the Covid-19 medical emergency. As of last week, the expert teachers that Ms
Benedetti has recruited to her cause for the live workshops have been sharing those
skills via the internet with daily lessons.

As well as Ms Benedetti’s own thrice-weekly “Live at Five” lessons and discussions on

Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays via the YouTube, Facebook and Instagram
platforms, sessions have included rhythm games with percussionist Elsa Bradley on

Monday, double bassist Stewart Wilson’s practice tips on Tuesday, Fife Youth Jazz
Orchestra founder Richard Michael explaining improvisation on Wednesday, violin
for beginners with Rachel Cooper on Thursday and Lucinda Geoghegan, whose
Kodaly-method training is the basis of the success of the National Youth Choir of

Scotland, leading a singing session on Friday. Cellist David Lunn, of the Red Note
Ensemble, violinist Elena Urioste and Welsh National Opera’s principal timpanist

Patrick King are three more Benedetti regulars adding dynamic activity sessions for
young people to the packed schedule.

Over the past year, Ms Benedetti, whose most recent recording, of a concerto
written for her by jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, won a Grammy award two

months ago, has worked with 4000 students and 700 teachers through her
foundation. Now she is bringing her professional performing career and those
masterclasses together in a project around her forthcoming album.

Like the recent classical-chart hit by cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, her new Decca
release has a focus on the compositions of British composer Edward Elgar, and is
built around a performance with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor
Vladimir Jurowski of his Violin Concerto in B Minor from 1910, a work forever

associated with Yehudi Menuhin, whose school for musicians Nicola Benedetti
herself attended from the age of 10. Alongside the technically-demanding hour-long

virtuoso piece, the album also includes three short Elgar works for violin and piano
with pianist Petr Limonov, one of which, Salut d’Amour, is a familiar party piece for
young violinists, and Elgar’s first published work.

With the album scheduled for release on May 15, this week Ms Benedetti is hosting a

new online series, Learn Salut d’Amour with Nicky, with daily YouTube tutorials at
10am each day running until Thursday. Young players are then invited to send in or
upload their performance of the piece to the Benedetti Foundation website and a

winner will be selected to be premiered on YouTube at 5pm next Sunday, April 19.

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