Wigan schoolgirl performs alongside internationally acclaimed violinist

So she admits to have been completely star-struck when she landed the chance to perform alongside her idol.

Benedetti is known the world over as a concert virtuoso but is also evangelical about music education.

And so it was that she organised two days of masterclasses and concerts at Bolton Town Hall recently to which talented youngsters were invited to take part.

Megan, a 15-year-old Deanery High School pupil from Hindley, leapt at the chance to audition, sending in a recording of her playing and it landed her a place in a scratch string orchestra of advanced level players.

She was allocated a seat and enjoyed two days of expert tuition, the first day rehearsing and then performing for family and teachers Vaughan Williams’s masterpiece, Fantasia on a theme of Thomas Tallis; the second day’s work under the microscope being Bartók’s Romanian Dances.

Megan said: “When Nicola walked into the room for the first time it was just amazing. She is one of my idols. It’s brilliant what she does and I want to be like her: a musician who can travel around the world performing solos.

"She told me that I had done really well performing which made me very happy!

"It was a great occasion for other reasons too because I got to meet people from all over England who also play the violin as well as other stringed instruments.

"And the masterclasses were really valuable. They certainly helped to improve my playing.”

Megan took up the violin in Year 3 at school. At first she considered the piano when a letter went out asking if anyone wanted to learn an instrument, but her dad Paul suggested the violin, not least because it would then maintain a family tradition, her grandad Harry Chadderton – who died in 2017 – also being a performer on the instrument.

She took lessons firstly with Lucy Hannet and later Rachael Drury through Wigan Music Service and these days she is at the Junior Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester where she studies with Liz Rossi. She is a member of the Wigan Youth Symphony Orchestra.

She recently gained her grade 7 in violin and is now working towards grade 8.