‘Our playing together feels very natural’
It’s not often a classical musician captures the imagination of the general public. In the case of the Kanneh-Masons, however, the whole family has managed just that. Sheku is the second oldest of the seven musically-talented siblings from Nottingham. The cellist became the first black BBC Young Musician in 2016, performed at Windsor Castle for the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in 2018, and this November received an MBE from the Princess Royal for services to music – all by the age of 22. His older sister, Isata, 25, is equally impressive. She started playing the piano at the age of six, and was the recipient of the 2021 Leonard Bernstein Award and a 2020 Opus Klassik award for best young artist.
So when the pandemic halted their joint tour, centred around the work of composers Samuel Barber and Sergei Rachmaninov, the pair asked whether they could replicate the experience off stage. The result was the 14-track album Muse. “We planned a year or so of performing them – and we thought that it worked really well together as a programme,” explains Isata, who, as the eldest, takes the lead in our conversation.
“The original plan was just concerts and then, after a few months, Covid happened and the concerts were cancelled. So we hadn’t had that long performing the repertoire. I felt like we had done a lot of work on the pieces but hadn’t been able to share them with that many people. So that’s when the idea of making a recording came about.” Isata regularly performs with Sheku alongside their brother Braimah, a violinist, as The Kanneh-Mason Trio, but here they worked as a duo.
“Over the years we have done many recitals together,” Sheku says over Zoom, sitting next to his sister at their record label’s offices.
“I feel, not just with this repertoire but generally, that our playing together feels very natural because there is a trust between us. So therefore a lot of flexibility is able to happen and we can be quite spontaneous.”
Isata says their easy relationship gave the recording sessions a relaxed atmosphere. But surely there must be some sibling rivalry? “We took it very seriously but it wasn’t stressful,” Sheku says with a smile. “We had plenty of time. We were working with people that we trusted musically and so we felt very comfortable and very able to express ourselves and go into lots of detail with the music. And so it was very relaxed in that sense. Of course, we were serious in the sense that we were really focused and we wanted to get the best out of every single moment of the piece. But it was a very nice atmosphere.” The seven
Kanneh-Mason siblings range in age from 12-year-old Mariatu, who is studying piano and cello, to Isata at 25.
Parents Stuart Mason, a business executive, and Dr Kadiatu Kanneh, a former university lecturer, are not musicians but ensured their household was a musical one. “I can’t remember many memories without music,” Isata explains, “because I think I started having recorder and theory (lessons) when I was three and my parents always played music around the house. I started at piano when I was about six – so really it was always there.” Sheku and Isata’s listening overlapped as children in Elgar’s cello concerto, Mozart’s requiem and Schubert’s chamber music.
It is no surprise that, as some of classical music’s youngest proponents, the pair have views on ensuring the craft finds a new generation of listeners.
“As a musician, it’s lovely to be able to share your music with as many people as possible,” says Sheku. “It is the greatest feeling when you feel that you’re adding to someone’s life through the music.”
In order to recreate this connection in the studio, they invited a small group of friends to watch the recording. “It’s a big question,” he says when asked how best to reach the new generation. “Certainly what’s not helpful is compromising the music is itself. The music, if performed to a high level, hopefully can really speak to people.
“And then it is therefore a case of making an audience feel comfortable going to a certain place and presenting music in a way they feel they can relate to.”
Sheku cites a performance of Frank Bridge’s cello sonata to a group of young schoolchildren at their school as one that broke through this invisible barrier.
Soloists and orchestras face significant obstacles to touring in the form of coronavirus and Brexit, and Sheku believes emerging artists are the ones suffering most.
“The younger up-and-coming musicians…” he begins. “It is most difficult for them, because they haven’t yet had the chance to establish things internationally. To try and establish things, especially now, is very tricky – extremely tricky. And I do worry a lot for young musicians and my peers.
“It is nice that concert halls are opening up but I hope they are not just opening up to the more wellknown and established artist, but continue to support younger artists and up-and-coming artists.”
He adds: “These couple of years have been very, very difficult times with not that many concerts. It is always the smaller venues and less established artists who suffer in these kinds of situations and need the support.”