INTERNATIONALLY renowned violinist Nicola Benedetti delighted dozens of young musicians when she took time to talk to them and sign autographs minutes after her performance at the Caird Hall, Dundee, on Saturday night.

After performing Mendelssohn’s violin concerto with the National Symphony Orchestra of Scotland, for which she received a lengthy and rapturous ovation from the capacity crowd, 17-year-old Nicola showed her down-to-earth personality by answering a barrage of questions and signing bits of paper, programmes and even a violin case.

“That was more daunting than the performance,” she said after walking into a room packed with admiring young musicians.

“But I enjoyed it very much. I was supposed to go out to the schools but things were moved around a bit with my schedule so it didn’t happen, so I was pleased to come and meet them here.

“I enjoyed the performance, too. It was really lovely to play here again.”

Nicola released her first album earlier this month and said she was delighted with its success so far, with shops all over the UK selling out of stocks within a couple of days of its release.

“I’m very, very excited by it,” she said, “although because I’m playing so much just now I haven’t got much time to sit and think about the album too much.

“This album wasn’t really all about sales. It doesn’t really matter if it’s in the top 20 of the classical charts or anything, so any kind of sales is a bonus.”

Her performance was the highlight of the concert organised by the seven Rotary clubs in the Dundee area—Dundee, Abertay, Claverhouse, Monifieth and District, North Fife, Camperdown and Discovery.

The concert, held to mark the centenary of the Rotary Club worldwide, had four major parts.

In the first Christopher Sayce directed the Dundee Schools Orchestra who gave an excellent account of themselves to the packed audience, adds a music critic.

Then the National Symphony Orchestra of Scotland, under the direction of Iain Sutherland, played a piece especially commissioned for the event, Carlo Martelli’s Rotary Centennial Overture.

After three movements from Grieg’s Peer Gynt, the orchestra accompanied Nicola for the Mendelssohn.

After the interval Dundee High School junior choir gave a focused and admirable account of three movements from Bob Chilcott’s The Peace Mass, which was all the more impressive for having been sung entirely from memory.

Then Dundee Choral Union joined the National Symphony Orchestra of Scotland for four more popular pieces—Parry’s I Was Glad, Sibelius’s Finlandia, Handel’s Zadok The Priest, and finishing with the Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture.

The concert is expected to raise £10,000 in aid of Dundee Disabled Children’s Association, which is building a new play area and activity centre.

It is part of a wider programme of joint events organised by the seven clubs to celebrate the centenary.

The Rotary movement has more than 1.2 million members in 166 countries.