Piano’s her forte
...and Isata’s siblings are also stars
SHE MAY be part of classical music royalty but Isata Kanneh-mason says that there is no rivalry among her six siblings... unless they are playing board games.
The famous pianist, who regularly performs with her younger brothers and sisters, also reveals she now dreams of branching out and performing with rapper Stormzy.
The 26-year-old can practise six hours a day to ensure she remains at the top of her profession.
Currently on a solo tour taking in Europe and North America, she is also part of the Kanneh-mason Trio alongside her brother, worldrenowned cellist Sheku, who played at the wedding service for Prince Harry and Meghan. Completing the trio is violinist brother Braimah.
They will be performing at the Henley Festival this summer.
Opening up about the family dynamics between the siblings, aged from 13 up, Isata said: “We’re not competitive when it comes to music, because we’re different ages. We’ve had to just help each other.
“But we are really competitive in board games and stuff like that. We play Monopoly and Scrabble but our biggest one is actually an anagrams board game, which is like this crazy word game and we get very competitive over that.
“I like to win, of course – we all like to win so it’s the same mindset for everyone.”
She continues: “But it’s nice to have siblings that play instruments because we’re able to help each other, and everyone understands what’s going on.we all switch to work mode when we’re working.we become professional so it’s just like working with any other musician – we’re focused and learning. But it’s nice when we finish working so we can just hang out.”
On the prospect of merging genres she said that she is keen to work with Stormzy.
She explained: “I recently saw my brother create a classical and jazz mix.
“I really enjoyed that and I’d love to see more things like that happening. I’m a particular fan of Stormzy, so I think if the opportunity came up I would definitely go for it. Let’s write him a little note.”
Isata, who is the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s Artist-inresidence this year, says she and her siblings were fortunate to have parents who encouraged them, and her school was also strong on music.
She said: “There’s no secret, magic formula. We were lucky enough to have opportunities, to have good music teaching, and now we work at it every day.”
She reveals she practises up to six hours a day and, despite her international renown and demanding touring schedule, still has a teacher.
She also trains her body to keep flexible and strong, using Pilates exercises and stretching.
She said: “Music takes practice. But you also have to really want to do it, because it’s a lot of hard work, and you have to really believe it’s something you want to keep doing every day. I still have teaching – you don’t ever stop learning.
“Normally I do about four hours’ practice and in really stressful times
I do six. If I’m more relaxed I do two. If you stop for a few days it slips back. So you can take a few days off or a week for a holiday but you have to be prepared to have at least a week after that, to get back into shape.
“You have to do a lot of stretching. It’s important to be flexible and also to relax, because it is easy for tension to build up in the body. So I do a lot of stretching and my sister and I go to Pilates together.”
Isata, who grew up in Nottingham and lives in London, said she wants all children to have the same opportunities she had.
The siblings are Isata, Braimah, 25, Sheku, 23, Konya, 22, Jeneba, 20, Aminata, 17, and Mariatu, 13. All play either piano, violin or cello, or a combination.
Their parents Stuart and Kadiatu are not professional musicians but both are music lovers.
Isata said: “I am a big advocate for classical music reaching a wider audience and being heard in circles where it’s not normally heard.
“We were lucky. We had teachers who were passionate about music, and music was an integral part of the school.
“A lot of that has stopped in many state education systems and that’s worrying, because music is expensive so having free access to it is really important.
“With my family, we often go into schools and play classical music for the children. Many schools are really keen to have more classical music.”