PARENTS who have been able to buy their child a violin, or whose offspring have been trusted with one from school, are reaping the benefit this lockdown Easter. While others struggle to keep youngsters amused during holidays as they are confined to the house, they have the online services of Scotland’s violin superstar Nicola Benedetti and her army of teachers to keep their budding musicians enthralled for part of every day.
The Benedetti Foundation, which exploded into action at the start of January, when a thousand young musicians and their teachers occupied Glasgow Royal Concert Hall for the first of the Benedetti Sessions in instrumental playing, singing and musicianship, has moved all the diverse facets of its work online as the world copes with the Covid-19 medical emergency. As of last week, the expert teachers that Ms Benedetti has recruited to her cause for the live workshops have been sharing those skills via the internet with daily lessons.
As well as Ms Benedetti’s own thrice-weekly “Live at Five” lessons and discussions on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays via the YouTube, Facebook and Instagram platforms, sessions have included rhythm games with percussionist Elsa Bradley on Monday, double bassist Stewart Wilson’s practice tips on Tuesday, Fife Youth Jazz Orchestra founder Richard Michael explaining improvisation on Wednesday, violin for beginners with Rachel Cooper on Thursday and Lucinda Geoghegan, whose Kodaly-method training is the basis of the success of the National Youth Choir of Scotland, leading a singing session on Friday. Cellist David Lunn, of the Red Note Ensemble, violinist Elena Urioste and Welsh National Opera’s principal timpanist Patrick King are three more Benedetti regulars adding dynamic activity sessions for young people to the packed schedule.
Over the past year, Ms Benedetti, whose most recent recording, of a concerto written for her by jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, won a Grammy award two months ago, has worked with 4000 students and 700 teachers through her foundation. Now she is bringing her professional performing career and those masterclasses together in a project around her forthcoming album.
Like the recent classical-chart hit by cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, her new Decca release has a focus on the compositions of British composer Edward Elgar, and is built around a performance with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Vladimir Jurowski of his Violin Concerto in B Minor from 1910, a work forever associated with Yehudi Menuhin, whose school for musicians Nicola Benedetti herself attended from the age of 10. Alongside the technically-demanding hour-long virtuoso piece, the album also includes three short Elgar works for violin and piano with pianist Petr Limonov, one of which, Salut d’Amour, is a familiar party piece for young violinists, and Elgar’s first published work.
With the album scheduled for release on May 15, this week Ms Benedetti is hosting a new online series, Learn Salut d’Amour with Nicky, with daily YouTube tutorials at 10am each day running until Thursday. Young players are then invited to send in or upload their performance of the piece to the Benedetti Foundation website and a winner will be selected to be premiered on YouTube at 5pm next Sunday, April 19.
Speaking of the project, Ms Benedetti made particular reference to the composer’s “non-traditional training and understanding of people”.
“During these unprecedented times, the recreation of community and collectivity is urgently needed and there is no better way than through arts and music. As part of our ‘With Nicky’ series, I am excited to teach this beautiful piece via social media channels and I hope that many, many young violinists will join me to explore it further together, and then give a mass virtual performance. I can’t wait!”
The Benedetti Foundation has made resources available to help young violinists join in the project. Sheet music for Salut d’Amour can be downloaded free from the website, where there are performances by the violinist to play along with as well as by her accompanist Petr Limonov alone, so that the student can be the soloist. Ms Benedetti’s own performance with Mr Limonov will be released as a digital single by Decca on Friday April 17.
Nicola Benedetti’s initiative, and the wider work of her foundation, is only part of a huge transfer of music-teaching resources to online formats as a result of the Covid-19 crisis. The National Youth Choir of Scotland’s National Boys Choir, which should have been meeting for a residential course over the Easter school holidays, is instead convening under artistic director Christopher Bell for online sessions this week. On Tuesday evening, the Scottish Awards for New Music, originally planned as an event at V&A Dundee, will happen online instead, hosted by broadcaster Jamie MacDougall, with Ms Benedetti as one of the celebrity presenters.
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