Nicola Benedetti: 20 facts you never knew

1. There's no place like home

Despite travelling all over the world, Nicola says she hasn't found any country that's more beautiful than Scotland.

2. Practice makes perfect

Nicola practices between three and seven and a half hours a day.

3. Nicola Benedetti's chart-topping albums

Nicola's 2012 album The Silver Violin was the first solo instrumental album in decades not only to top the classical charts but also enter the top 30 pop album charts.

4. T in the Park

Nicola took her music to rock festival crowds in 2012 as she played the main stage at the T in the Park festival in Kinross, Scotland.

5. Outstanding performer

Nicola likes to wear bold colours when she performs. "It allows you to stand out from the orchestra and be defined from a distance," she says.

6. Child prodigy

By the age of nine, Nicola had already passed the eight grades of musical examinations.

7. Saving the £2million violin

Nicola has said if a fire broke out in her home, she would grab her violin before her cat. "In an ideal world, all three of us would escape unscathed," she says. "But if I had to choose between the cat and the violin the £2million Stradivarius would have to come first."

8. Nicola's motto

Nicola's motto is "Enhance your own ability, be the best you can be – but don’t keep that for yourself. Share it, expose it, give it and try to enrich other people with what you have managed to achieve."

9. Nicola Benedetti and Andrea Bocelli

In September 2011, Nicola appeared with tenor Andrea Bocelli at an open-air concert in New York, performing a transcription of Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez.

10. Nicola Benedetti and Szymanowski

Nicola Benedetti championed the violin concerto from Polish composer Karol Szymanowski, bringing it firmly into public consciousness. She also performed the Korngold violin concerto on her Silver Violin album, creating an almost viral effect among violinists!

nicola benedetti at the classical brits 2012

11. She's a Barbie girl

In 2003, Nicola participated in the soundtrack recording of the DVD ‘Barbie of Swan Lake’, an animated version of Tchaikovsky’s ballet starring Barbie the doll.

12. Baroque not rock

Nicola has only been to one rock concert in her life, and said she 'couldn't handle it’. Luckily, she feels at home on the classical stage.

13. Nicola Benedetti's father

Nicola’s father had never been to a classical concert before she began to play. At home they listened to Abba and the Bee Gees.

14. Nicola Benedetti and her sister Stephanie

During school holidays, Nicola and her sister had to work for three hours every morning before they could go out to play. ‘Think how much more fun that made the afternoons,’ says Nicola.

15. Honorary Doctorate

Nicola received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Glasgow Caledonian University in 2007, and another honorary degree from the University of Edinburgh in 2011.

16. Nicola Benedetti's violin

The violin Nicola plays is called the Gariel, made in 1717 by Stradivarius. It's worth an estimated £2m and previously belonged to an ancestor of Princess Diana.

17. Arts education

Nicola Benedetti says her first love is music and her second love is educating people through the art of music.

18. Three's company

Aside from solo performances, Nicola performs in a trio with her boyfriend the German cellist Leonard Elschenbroich, and Russian pianist Alexei Grynyuk.

19. A passion for education

Nicola is not afraid to express her anger about the provision of music in UK schools: "Decisions have been made, especially in the light of funding cuts, that are, I think, catastrophic to our future as a nation," she has said.

20. Fashion icons

Nicola admires the style of actresses Gwyneth Paltrow, Monica Bellucci and Marion Cotillard but says she wouldn't ever be able to dress like them herself.