Nicola Benedetti

Nicola Benedetti (Nicola Joy Nadia Benedetti) is a Scottish violinist and teacher born (in West Kilbride) on July 20, 1987.  (West Kilbride is a very small village located about 33 miles west of Glasgow)  She is known for being a child prodigy.  She is a left handed person who plays right handed (as is Caroline Goulding and as was Higinio Ruvalcaba.) She began her violin studies with Brenda Smith at age 4.  By age 8, she was the concertmaster of the National Children’s Orchestra of Great Britain.  In September of 1997, she began studying at the Yehudi Menuhin School.  She was 10 years old.  There, she studied with Natasha Boyarskaya.  She made her public debut one year later at Wigmore Hall in London.  I don’t know what piece (or pieces) she played then.  Her later teachers included Pavel Vernikov (concertmaster of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, according to one source - see comment) and Maciej Rakowski, concertmaster of the English Chamber Orchestra.  She has received quite a number of awards, too numerous to mention; however, as far as I know, she has never entered a major violin competition.  By her late teens, she was already an established concertizing artist.  She also formed a piano trio in 2008.  Benedetti has played a Stradivarius from 1717 (the Gariel Stradivarius, previously owned by Jaime Laredo) and the Earl Spencer Stradivarius (1712 or 1723) which she is probably currently playing.  Her discography is not extensive (quite understandably, given that there’s not much repertory left to record - new concertos are not worth recording and every standard concerto has already been recorded dozens of times by very prominent and some not-so-prominent artists.)  Here is one YouTube video of her playing.  Photo is courtesy of Simon Fowler.  

Alma Moodie

Alma Moodie (Alma Templeton Moodie) was a Scottish (some would say Australian) violinist and teacher born on September 12, 1898 (Stravinsky was 16 years old.) She is remembered for never having recorded and for being the favorite pupil of Carl Flesch. She was a highly successful concert violinist of the early twentieth century who dropped from public view and who today is even omitted from the most popular music dictionaries. She initially studied with her mother. By age 5, however, she had a private violin tutor (Louis D'Hage) in Rockhampton, Australia, which is where she was probably born (sources differ.) By age 6, she was playing in public and by age 9. she was studying with Oskar Back at the conservatory in Brussels, Belgium. In 1919, she began studying with Carl Flesch. By 1922, she was playing ten concerts per month throughout Europe and elsewhere. She premiered several works by important composers of that era - Krenek, Pfitzner, Atterberg, and Stravinsky, among others. Many other works were also dedicated to her. After her marriage in 1927, her schedule became less hectic. She settled in Cologne and taught at the Hoch Conservatory (Frankfurt) for a time. Musical luminaries, including Leopold Auer and Arthur Nikisch, spoke highly of her. She never returned to her native Australia. She also became addicted to alcohol and sleeping pills. On March 7, 1943, Moodie died (from some type of thrombosis), at age 44. Some say she committed suicide.