Nicola Benedetti MBE (born 19 July 1987 in West Kilbride in Ayrshire, Scotland) is a Scottish classical violinist. She started to learn the violin at the age of four. By the age of nine, she had already passed the eight grades of musical examinations, and in September 1997 began to study at the Yehudi Menuhin School for young musicians in rural Surrey. At the end of her first year, she played solo in the school's annual concert at Wigmore Hall,