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As with the live sessions she organised, Benedetti has been careful not to tread on the toes of the
teaching profession. “We want to complement, not compete with, what music teachers and

schools are offering during lockdown,” she says. “That said, looking at all the schemes for

teaching children online during the lockdown, I’ve not seen much done successfully regarding

music education. Yes, there are thousands of music teachers out there doing their best to transfer

their teaching materials online, but in terms of any collective, national effort I think music has
been left behind.”

Nicola Benedetti being appointed CBE at Buckingham Palace, with the Prince of Wales
PA
What’s striking about Benedetti’s scheme — as opposed to most of the other online projects

being hastily put together by top musicians — is that it is so firmly focused on youth and

amateur music-making. I have read, and indeed written, so much in the past month about

professional musicians’ attempts to keep their business alive with ingeniously streamed videos,

but what’s often overlooked is that lockdown has also silenced thousands of amateur and youth
choirs, choral societies, orchestras and brass bands. That has had a crushing impact, not just on

the cultural life of many nations, but also on the bonds tying communities together.

“Absolutely,” Benedetti says. “We are seeing something more clearly than ever — that the most

important thing about music-making is it’s a collective activity. At any normal time that would

be the most amazing thing to celebrate. Right now, sadly, the collective side of music is the very

thing that stops it from happening, and that’s devastating.”
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