Benedetti tells of her work-life harmony

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 L eonard 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 10, before going on to win the BBC Young Musician of the Year aged 16.

Now clocking up 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 home with Elschenbroich.

She said it helps to have a partner in the same line of 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 its 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 premiere five love duets for violin and cello written specially for Benedetti and Elschenbroich.

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

She said: “I think it’s inevitable when you live through a variety of experiences, musical and otherwise.”