Born in Irvine, Scotland on July 20, 1987, Nicola Benedetti CBE is a classical violinist of Italian descent. At the age of four, she began practicing the violin and by the age of eight, she was the leader of the National Children’s Orchestra of Great Britain. She passed the eight grades of musical examinations by the age of nine while attending Wellington School in Ayr, Scotland. By 1997, she was styling at the Yehudi Menuhin School for young musicians, performing at their annual Wigmore Hall concert in 1998. At the age of 16, she won the BBC Young Musician of the Year award. As a soloist, she has worked with different orchestras in Europe and the United States while also performing with her pianist Alexei Grynyuk. Nicola Benedetti’s first album, Szymanowski: Violin Concerto No. 1, was released in 2005 and rose to the Number 1 position on the UK Classical Albums chart. Other successful albums include Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto (2006), Fantasie (2009), The Silver Violin (2012), and Elgar Violin Concerto (2020). She was made a member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 2013. Six years later, she was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).