RTE Symphony

Some people have all the luck - talent to die for and beauty to kill for. With the double barrel helping of genius and looks, fame and fortune must have been an easy target for Nicola Benedetti.

Hailing from southwest Scotland, where she was born in Ayrshire in 1987, she first picked up a violin at the age of four, though it is rumored she cried when it was handed to her, she quickly overcame her initial reluctance and began Suzuki lessons some time before her fifth birthday.

By the age of ten she had enrolled in the equally prestigious Yehudi Menuhin School and her artistry grew in leaps and bounds until, at the tender age of 16, she was named as the BBC's Young Musician of the Year in 2004.

The next year, the then-17-year-old, signed a not too shabby million pound, six album deal, with Deutsche Grammophon, the holy grail of classical recording artists. While some members of the press have been quick to dismiss her as the 'Britney Spears of Classical music' she has stayed thankfully clear of the many pitfalls of fame that plague other child stars - though at still only 19 years of age there's plenty time for the champagne, cocaine lifestyle to pop up yet!

It's all too easy to credit such gargantuan early success on looks or luck rather than on talent while assuming that other more talented musicians, with the bad luck to be born looking like the back of a bus are sitting forlornly at home.

Such criticism, however, can be easily dismissed with The Sunday Times describing Nicola's playing as having 'glass-shattering perfection...and deliciously unaffected charm'. This concert truly presents an exciting opportunity to hear a formidable talent performing one of the great violin concertos.

Nicola will play in the Tralee Regional Sports Centre on March 15th at 8:00 p.m. where she will perform Mendelssohn's beautiful Violin Concerto, Beethoven's powerful Seventh Symphony, and Nicolai's captivating Overture to The Merry Wives of Windsor.

All feature in the RTE National Symphony Orchestra's Spring tour under conductor Gerhard Markson who is the principal conductor of the RTE National Symphony Orchestra but additionally has a busy international conducting career.

The RTE National Symphony Orchestra plays a central role in classical music in Ireland, through live performance, broadcast and touring. As an integral part of RTE, the orchestra reaches a great number of listeners through its live broadcasts on RTE lyric fm and through its association with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). It promises to be a concert not to be missed.