If you’ve ever wondered which violin Nicola Benedetti plays, you’re in good company, and the answer is less tidy than fan pages suggest. Her award record is well documented, from a BBC Young Musician win in to a GRAMMY in 2020, so this piece separates what official biographies confirm from what they contradict.
GRAMMY Award: Best Classical Instrumental Solo, 2020 · Classical BRIT Awards: Best Female Artist, 2012 and 2013 · BBC Young Musician: Won at age 16
Quick snapshot
- GRAMMY Best Classical Instrumental Solo, 2020, for the Marsalis recording (Nicola Benedetti official website) (New York Philharmonic artist biography)
- Best Female Artist at the 2012 and 2013 Classical BRIT Awards (Barbican Centre) (New York Philharmonic artist biography)
- Plays the 1717 “Gariel” Stradivarius, courtesy of Jonathan Moulds (New York Philharmonic artist biography)
- The loan start is either 2012 or 2017 (Classical Music Magazine feature)
- Medici.tv names a different instrument, the Earl Spencer Stradivarius (Medici.tv artist profile)
- No sourced price or practice-time figure appears in the research for this article (Classical Music Magazine feature)
- Born , according to Wikipedia artist entry
- BBC Young Musician win in , aged 16 (Royal Albert Hall Archives) (Wikipedia artist entry)
- Festival Director from (Verbier Festival artist profile)
- The 2012 versus 2017 loan conflict needs a primary loan record (Classical Music Magazine)
- The Benedetti Foundation’s founding year, 2019 or 2020, needs confirmation (New York Philharmonic)
- Any price or practice-time claim needs a named dealer or conservatoire source before publication
Seven entries form the core record, and each one traces to a named publisher.
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Date of birth | , according to Wikipedia |
| Instrument | 1717 “Gariel” Stradivarius, made by Antonio Stradivari (ITV News report) |
| Festival Director, Edinburgh International Festival | (Verbier Festival) |
| Queen’s Medal for Music | , youngest recipient according to Wikipedia |
| MBE | 2013 New Year Honours (New York Philharmonic) |
| CBE | 2019 New Year Honours (Nicola Benedetti official website) |
| Classical BRIT Awards | Best Female Artist, 2012 and 2013 (Barbican Centre) |
Which violin does Nicola Benedetti play?
What the sources confirm about her instrument
- She plays the 1717 “Gariel” Stradivarius, made by Antonio Stradivari, according to ITV News.
- The instrument is on loan from Jonathan Moulds, and three official biographies name it: the New York Philharmonic, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the Barbican Centre.
- The loan start is the open question. According to Wikipedia, it began in 2012, while Classical Music Magazine dates the loan to 2017.
“It was love at first sight with the Gariel.”
Nicola Benedetti, in an interview with Hello Magazine interview
What the Gariel Stradivarius search term does and does not show
- Search interest in “Gariel Stradivarius” shows that readers care about the instrument, but it does not confirm a match.
- Only official biographies and dated press records settle the instrument question, and this article relies on those.
- Two sources disagree on the loan start, so a single date should not be repeated as settled fact.
Seven spec entries below show where each detail comes from and where the sources split.
| Spec | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Instrument name | “Gariel” Stradivarius | New York Philharmonic |
| Maker and year | Antonio Stradivari, 1717 | ITV News |
| Lender | Jonathan Moulds | Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra |
| Earlier owner | Charles-Marie Gariel, who bought it in 1881, according to Hello Magazine | Hello Magazine |
| Loan start | 2012 or 2017, sources conflict | Classical Music Magazine |
| Alternative instrument named | Earl Spencer Stradivarius (c 1712) | Medici.tv |
| Reported value | £6.3m in 2012, a single low-confidence report | Classical Music Magazine |
Anyone repeating the instrument name can cite three official biographies, which is the strongest evidence in this research. No source resolves when the loan began, so the date stays out of settled claims.
Who are some famous solo violinists?
Nicola Benedetti’s documented award record
- GRAMMY Best Classical Instrumental Solo in 2020 for Marsalis: Violin Concerto; Fiddle Dance Suite (Nicola Benedetti official website)
- Best Female Artist at the 2012 and 2013 Classical BRIT Awards (Barbican Centre)
- BBC Young Musician of the Year in , aged 16, performing Szymanowski’s First Violin Concerto (Royal Albert Hall Archives)
- She was the first Scot to win the prize, according to Encyclopedia.com biography
Six honours fall into three groups: three official honours, one competition, and two industry awards. Treating them as a single list hides the difference between them.
| Category | Award | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Official honour | MBE | 2013 New Year Honours |
| Official honour | CBE | 2019 New Year Honours |
| Official honour | Queen’s Medal for Music, according to Wikipedia | |
| Competition | BBC Young Musician of the Year | , aged 16 |
| Industry award | GRAMMY Best Classical Instrumental Solo | 2020 |
| Industry award | Classical BRIT Best Female Artist | 2012 and 2013 |
Paganini as a historical reference point
- Paganini’s name comes up in this question, but the research supplied no sourced note on his technique or reputation.
- Any claim about his place in music history needs a Tier 1 or Tier 2 reference, and none is included here.
“Benedetti has the gift of communication in spades: an ability to make the music seem larger than life by sheer eagerness of musical personality.”
The Independent, quoted by Medici.tv
The trade-off: Award lists prove a record, but they don’t rank her against other soloists, so placing her among “famous” violinists remains a judgment call.
Is Paganini the greatest violinist of all time?
Why did the church refuse to bury Paganini?
- The research gives no dated primary or academic source for a burial refusal, so this article does not state one.
- “Greatest of all time” is a judgment rather than a measurable record, and the research names no critic who ranks Paganini first.
- Repeating the burial story would need a dated academic source, which this article does not include.
Ranking debates run on opinion, and no award database settles them. Readers who want the burial story should check a dated academic source before repeating it.
What this means: The “greatest” claim fails as a fact check because it is opinion, and the burial story fails here because no source is supplied.
How much does a good violin cost?
How much is a real Stradivarius violin worth?
- The research contains no dated auction or dealer figure for any Stradivarius, so this article gives no price benchmark.
- One low-confidence report values the Gariel at £6.3m in 2012, according to Classical Music Magazine, and no other source in the set repeats it.
How auction records differ from dealer prices
- Auction results and dealer prices come from different channels, so every figure needs its channel and sale year named.
- The Gariel’s attribution to Antonio Stradivari comes from ITV News and the official biographies, not from an authenticator’s record.
A student buyer asking what a good violin costs gets no sourced figure here. The one Stradivarius number in the research rests on a single low-confidence report.
The implication: Price claims without a named channel and sale year should be treated as unverified, not as a benchmark.
How long does it take to learn violin?
Practice hours needed for basic competence
- The research gives no practice-hour benchmark with a named source, so this article offers no hours figure.
- According to uDiscover Music feature, Benedetti began lessons at age four or five, and the sources conflict on which.
First-year steps for a new violinist
- The sequence below follows the research plan, and none of its steps carries a sourced timeline.
- Get a correctly sized instrument before anything else.
- Learn posture and bowing with a teacher rather than from videos alone.
- Hold off on advanced repertoire until basic technique is steady.
- Set a time range only after a named conservatoire or music education body supplies one.
The trade-off: A short timeline is easy to write and hard to support, so the honest answer here is a sequence rather than a number of weeks.
Confirmed facts
- GRAMMY Best Classical Instrumental Solo, 2020 (Nicola Benedetti official website)
- Best Female Artist, Classical BRIT Awards, 2012 and 2013 (Barbican Centre)
- BBC Young Musician win in May 2004, aged 16 (Royal Albert Hall Archives)
- Plays the 1717 “Gariel” Stradivarius, courtesy of Jonathan Moulds (Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra)
What’s unclear
- Loan start: 2012 per Wikipedia or 2017 per Classical Music Magazine
- Whether the Earl Spencer Stradivarius is an instrument she plays (Medici.tv only)
- Current market value, given the single £6.3m report from 2012
- The historical grounds for the church refusing Paganini’s burial
- Whether the Benedetti Foundation was founded in 2019 or 2020
For a parent or student budgeting for a first violin, the choice is clear: request a dated sale record from a named dealer before trusting any price, or set the budget with a teacher rather than a figure from a search snippet.
bbc.co.uk, nicolabenedetti.co.uk, classical.music.apple.com, nicolabenedetti.co.uk
Frequently asked questions
What awards has Nicola Benedetti won?
The awards are set out in the comparison table above, which groups three official honours, one competition win and two industry awards, with each source named in the text.
Did Benedetti win BBC Young Musician at age 16?
The win is recorded in the Royal Albert Hall Archives, and the awards section above names that archive with the date and age.
Is the Earl Spencer Stradivarius her instrument?
Only Medici.tv names it. The official biographies name the Gariel, so the spec table shows the conflict and the unclear list keeps it open.
Why do sources disagree on when the loan began?
The spec table shows both dates with their publishers, and no primary loan record in the research settles the question.
Does the research include a sourced violin price?
No. The price section explains which details are missing, and the one Stradivarius figure is flagged as a single low-confidence report.
Does the research include a practice-time benchmark?
No. The learning section gives a sequence of steps rather than a number of hours, because no named conservatoire source was supplied.
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Edward Davies Bennett is Editor-in-Chief and Responsible Publisher at Insight Britain, overseeing editorial standards, publication decisions and the corrections process.