 At age 14, she appeared in the 1938 film "La Petite Chose" as a guitar player in a supporting role and, as a 16-year-old, she played Paganini's guitar during a commemoration of the centennial of his death in 1940.On 16 September 1948, Presti gave the French premiere of Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez, which was broadcast on radio from Paris and also carried on several other continental stations.She gave her first recital in London on 1 December 1951, "The Times" noting "her truly astonishing right hand dexterity and her lively temperament."