Superstar violinist meets the next generation
Nicola Benedetti yesterday urged Scotland’s next generation of young musicians to embrace mistakes.
The leading violinist believes youngsters should be encouraged to enjoy making music and urged them not to worry about hitting duff notes when pursuing their musical dreams.
She said that with music – and life generally – hard work and passion were more important than fretting about mistakes. She led a workshop for 350 young people and teachers during the inaugural weekend of her Benedetti Sessions programme.
Miss Benedetti – a passionate advocate of music education in schools – told the youngsters: “One thing I want to really encourage from you is to not be scared of mistakes. “When we’re trying to do something as difficult as playing these instruments so much of the time our brains get totally clogged up with thinking what if I come in wrong, what if I play the wrong string, what if I play out of tune, and we get more and more worried about mistakes then we’re not able to concentrate any more and we’re not able to enjoy it any more.
“So I want to right now to just free you of the fear of making mistakes. They are welcome in these sessions.
“The only thing that would disappoint me is if I’m looking out and I don’t see people trying their hardest.
“If you’re trying your hardest it’s like in life – if you risk something, if you go for it 100%, the likelihood is something is going to go wrong and that’s fine.”
The series of six weekend workshops for aspiring musicians have been organised by the Benedetti Foundation, and the first was held this weekend at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow. Youngsters aged between five and 18 applied for places by sending in audio or video clips of themselves playing an instrument.