Cultural life, the radio four podcast, she reveals her formative influences and experiences, and how her passion for playing was there from the start. I knew very young there was no question i wanted to play the violin. There was no question that that was what i must do and had to do and wanted to do. Have you played here much, nicky . They chuckle nicola benedetti, welcome to this cultural life. Thank you so much for having me. Its an absolute pleasure. You were born and brought up in north ayrshire. What are your earliest musical memories at home . What memories do you have of music being played at home . The bee gees and abba. Later on, good dose of shania twain. That was all my dads taste. My mum definitely had a kenny g record. Um. She laughs saxophone . Theyll kill me for saying all of this quite like this, but its the truth both of your parents were born in italy, werent they . Yes. Was it an italian household culturally growing up . Its a good question. I would say both parents
But its the truth both of your parents were born in italy, werent they . Yes. Was it an italian household culturally growing up . Its a good question. I would say both parents assimilated very concretely and quite deliberately with scottishness and scottish culture, but they also came over very young. My mum was three years old. An italian speaking three year old with an italian mother and scottish father. Um. Came over to scotland and, er. Was sort of banned from speaking italian quite quickly. It was considered to be detrimental to her education and all sorts of things. We know better now. So my mum lost most of her italian, um. And it was a very scottish upbringing from that moment forward. And my dad, he came over when he was kind of ten or ii. Came over without his parents. Had a rough time, you know, adjusting to such a different culture. It was a good, healthy mix. But as far as mealtimes go and food, we were italian all the way. You mentioned you started playing the violin at t
was such that i never questioned it. and i think there s no real moment in my life that i ve questioned a relationship to music. music plays the playing of the violin and music, it s almost music plays the playing of the violin and music, it s almost like the glue in the foundation out of which, i ve had endless opportunities to try to do things for people and impact something. nicola benedetti, thank you for sharing your cultural life.
you know, him sending me he does everything by hand, so a handwritten three bar, you know, scribble, like, could this go instead of this, or could this instead of this? can you try this? i would do a voice note recording, send it back to him so that he could hear was the effect was like. and a significant amount of your musical time is spent in musical education and taking the community benefits of music to those from less privileged backgrounds as wynton marsalis has done, as well. was he an influence in that aspect of your career, do you think? well, it s interesting because i actually started doing things like that before meeting him, a couple of years before meeting him. but you saw him as a kindred spirit? absolutely. it was more that a kindred spirit. he will always say to me, don t wait. a lot of people just take care of themselves and their career until a certain point and then, start the giving back. don t wait. do these things whilst you re young. you have the
at the beginning. with this method, you re learning tunes immediately. and therefore, it is music immediately. it s not a whole load of technical work before you get to play a tune. but it came naturally to you. i mean, your earliest memories are of music being made and it feeling like it was something you should do? i think that i had an intensity towards the music itself, and a real ability to want to express that. there has to be some impetus and purpose that s attached to anything you re then going to do for that long. and for me, it was the emotional music, it was things that were moving. i was moved to tears by pieces i was learning when i was as young as six. um.that was the pull, and, er.the thing that made me want to go to my violin each day. it was the feeling that you re able to experience yourself and give to other people. that was. it was like a pull. i wanted to go back