Nicola Benedetti is an Italian-Scottish classical solo violinist and festival director. Her ability was recognised when she was a child, including the award of BBC Young Musician of the Year when she was 16. She works with orchestras in Europe and America as well as with Alexei Grynyuk, her regular pianist. Since 2012, she has played the Gariel Stradivarius violin. In 2019, she founded the music education charity The Benedetti Foundation and became the first woman to lead the Edinburgh International Festival when she was made Festival Director on 1 October 2022.