Sisters hail their musical mentor and friend as she leads international education mission
Like many young Scots in the classical world, the Ayoub sisters have been inspired by Nicola Benedetti, and had been friends long before they recorded music of their own.
“We’ve known Nicky for at least 10 years,” said Laura. “I admired her so much as a young violinist in Scotland – she is ‘it’ and who we look up to. We became close friends when I moved to London and we have been working with her through the Benedetti Foundation for two years, either writing arrangements or at improvisation workshops.”
The charity, set up by Benedetti to provide music education for young people, students, teachers and adults, and to ensure music is a vital part of the curriculum, was launched in January 2020 with an in-person workshop in Glasgow, which the Ayoubs were part of. During lockdown, the Foundation came into its own online, and has delivered more than 100 virtual sessions.
“To see first-hand how she’s shaped this global community of musicians, which contains such a mix of ages and stages, has been great,” said Laura.
The Benedetti Foundation’s virtual sessions return this week with Global Violin Sessions: A Cultural Exchange Part Two. A piece of music written by Phil Cunningham will be played by Benedetti, and then passed to musicians from different traditions over the course of three weekends. They will change the rhythm and tone and add instrumentation, and deliver workshops and tutorials to the online community on how they did it, and the students will then record their own versions which will come together in a final performance on May 22.
Week one sees Phil Cunningham,
Aly Bain and Jenna Reid representing Scotland, the Ayoub Sisters represent Egypt in week two, and Laure Chan and Timothy Chooi represent East Meets West in the third weekend.
“It’s not only teaching but exploration,” said Sarah. “It’s almost like musical Chinese whispers and it will be interesting to hear how the whisper spreads.”
Laura added: “We were lucky to have a world-class musical education and upbringing in Scotland at Douglas Academy in Milngavie and we have a strong desire to share as much of what we learned as possible.
“It’s not just about training the next generation of musicians; learning an instrument brings so many transferable life-enhancing skills like creating confident, well-rounded people, being able to work well in teams, operating under pressure, and the ability to stand up in front of people.”