NICOLA Benedetti has opened up about what it's like to live with her cellist partner, saying they "help each other a lot musically".

The musician lives in London with Leonard Elschenbroich, whom she met at the famous Yehudi Menuhin School in Surrey.

Originally from West Kilbride, Benedetti won a place at the prestigious school at the age of ten, before going on to win the BBC Young Musician of the Year aged 16.

Now clocking around 100 performances a year, the 27-year-old says she carries her Stradivarius on flights in the overhead luggage compartment to keep an eye on it.

But she tries to spend at least a part of every month at her home with Elschenbroich.

She said it helps to have a partner in the same line if business, saying: "We go to each other's concerts, help each other a lot musically."

However the violinist, who says she practices between two and six hours a day, also said that it could have it more trying moments at times.

She added: "You go through quite a few teething phases of how you deliver comments on how he played, and how he should do that too.

"We used to have very interesting rehearsals in that regard. Because we play in a piano trio together, sometimes we manage to offend each other, but you do just get used to each other."

The pair, who have been in a relationship for eight years, will star together with a group of ensemble musicians in a new tour this September, playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons and Tchaikovsky's Souvenir de Florence, which was chosen by Benedetti.

They will also perform Vivaldi's Grosso Mogul in D major and the world premier of five love duets for violin and cello written specially for Benedetti and Elschenbroich.

She also said tha she has matured as a musician over the years.

She said: "I think it's inevitable when you spend so long developing something a live through a variety of experiences, musical and otherwise.

"All of that manifests itself in your sounds and your playing. It's something you can't really control.

"Also sometimes you have to say goodbye to things about your playing because you change physically, emotionally, mentally.

"The process of development for me is never straightforward or easy. I try to stay in an open state and go with it, but that's not to say you're not constantly working on overcoming your weaknesses. It's a balance to strike."