Next month sees the release of My First Decade – a retrospective of 26-year-old Classical Brit Award-winning Nicola Benedetti’s recorded output in the past ten years.

“It’s really strange,” she says, as she prepares to return to the live stage in Brighton after an extended period of study.

“I feel like I’m still scratching the surface and have so far to go – so much to improve, develop and continue to share with people.”

The young Scot has enjoyed something of a rollercoaster ride since she first picked up the violin at the age of five.

A graduate of the Yehudi Menuhin School – studying under Russian violinist Natasha Boyarskaya – Benedetti won the BBC Young Musician Of The Year competition in 2004, signing a £1 million recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon, part of Universal Music Group, at the end of that year.

She now has seven recordings to her name, with last year’s The Silver Violin crossing over into the UK album charts at number 32.

The cinema-inspired album earned Benedetti her Classical Brit Award, adding to a year which also saw her play the Last Night Of The Proms.

It was topped off in January with the announcement she had received an MBE in the New Year’s Honours.

“Last year was a big year, certainly in terms of performance opportunities,” she admits.

“Nothing generates more and better performance offers than good performances. It’s the only thing that really changes your future opportunities – to go out there and play really well.”

It has meant her diary is now booked up for the next two and a half years, playing concertos with some of the biggest orchestras and conductors in the world – although she admits there are still some she would like to work with, such as Royal Opera House music director Antonio Pappano and La Scala’s MD Daniel Barenboim.

The Brighton concert sees her perform in a chamber ensemble alongside pianist Alexei Grynyuk and cellist Leonard Elschenbroich.

“I embrace that contrast and variety,” she says. “I think it’s important to keep the music and the experience of being on stage fresh.

“A lot of the time I’m asked to play a concerto and the orchestra is responsible for putting together the programme. These concerts are different in that it is my choice of repertoire, down to the last detail.

“The challenge for us is to guess who our audience are and what they are looking for. You have to choose a combination of repertoire that encompasses and represents everything you feel most strongly about – and that is what I’ve tried to do.”

Her starting point was The Silver Violin – an album she built around Erich Korngold’s Violin Concerto, a piece of music she confesses a huge love for.

The piece, which was premiered in 1947, drew thematically on musical scores Korngold had written for Hollywood – which included the Oscar-winning The Adventures Of Robin Hood, and Oscar-nominated The Private Lives Of Elizabeth And Essex and The Seahawk.

“I devised something that I felt embedded the concerto quite well,” says Benedetti, who will be opening the concert with Korngold’s Mariettas Lied from Die Tote Stadt, alongside the themes from Ladies In Lavender and Schindler’s List, Gustav Mahler’s Piano Quartet in A Minor from Martin Scorcese’s Shutter Island, and Carlos Gardel’s tango Por Una Cabeza from Scent Of A Woman.

The second half of the concert is devoted to Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio In A Minor.

“It has a slower development but by the end of it you will feel like you have been immensely moved by something,” she says. “It should be life-changing if you haven’t experienced that piece before.”

It was those sorts of moments that encouraged her to become a classical violinist.

“I used to listen to big violin concertos. I remember the excitement of hearing other top violinists perform and record, hearing their passion for that music,” she says. “I would hear them and want to learn how to do that, to make my own statements with those pieces.”

That experience led to her launching The Benedetti Sessions – which encourage other young musicians through workshops and the chance to work with professional musicians.

“It’s tough enough having the patience to learn to play your instrument,” she says. “If you don’t have activities, workshops and inspirational goals to keep you going, I think it’s even harder.

“It’s something I’m dedicated to. I want to share and pass on what I know.”

She continues to be inspired by the sheer volume of material available to her.

“There is a wealth of experiences and knowledge and I know I will never tire of it. I’m dedicated to that for the long haul.”