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phone call this week. “My immediate family and friends are safe and well, so in the grand
scheme of things I don’t have anything to complain about. When it came to the cancellation of
the workshops, however, it did take me a few days to decide what to do.”
The obvious answer was to replicate the programme online, but Benedetti was initially hesitant
about doing that. “To me it seemed as if there were, like, 50,000 musicians all streaming solo
performances of Bach down their iPhones. It was total saturation on Facebook, and I felt
reluctant to add yet more noise. Not that their playing was noise, of course, but you know what I
mean.”
After more thought, however, she realised that disaster could be turned into opportunity. “We
knew when we set up the foundation and started the With Nicky series [video tutorials with
Benedetti speaking directly to the camera] that using online technology would be a way of
reaching out to many more people. The trouble is that when you set yourself massive logistical
challenges such as organising live workshops involving thousands of children, the online stuff
can fall by the wayside.
“So I realised that the lockdown would be our chance to do something big online. That sounds
horribly opportunistic at a time when there is so much devastation and heartache, but do you
make the best of a bad situation or not? So with Laura Gardiner [Benedetti’s chief lieutenant, a
phenomenal violin teacher from Lincolnshire] we set out to do the seemingly impossible, and
pull everything together online in as short a time as possible.”
Nicola Benedetti: “We will have the most unbelievable virtuosity right next to kids who are non-instrumentalists”
The result, the Virtual Benedetti Sessions, goes live on May 11, although if you want to take
part you should register immediately (details below). To judge from the take-up for the live
sessions, there will be a rush for places. The virtual sessions comprise three weeks of free online
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