Meet the musician: Sheku Kanneh-Mason

But even at that young age the cellist was no stranger to cameras and publicity.

In 2015 he appeared with his musical siblings on Britain’s Got Talent, and in 2016 he won the BBC Young Musician competition, the first Black musician to pick up that honour, Kanneh-Mason. That same year he was interviewed by BBC’s Front Row and was the subject of a BBC Four documentary, Young, Gifted and Classical: The Making of a Maestro.

Alongside his sister Isata and brother Braimah, Kanneh-Mason was a member of Chineke! Orchestra, and has since gone on to appear as a soloist alongside a number of other major orchestras worldwide including Orchestre de chambre de Paris, Hallé Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony and São Paulo Symphony. Since making his debut in 2017 he has appeared at the BBC Proms every year since, and in 2022 took on the coveted role as guest soloist at the Last Night of the Proms.

Already a regular performer at the Southbank Centre, Kanneh-Mason became one of our Resident Artists in 2023, and so we took the opportunity to discover a little bit more about him.

What’s your earliest memory of classical music?

My earliest memory of classical music is listening to the Elgar cello concerto on long car journeys as a very young child.

Did you always want to be a musician?

No, not at all but I always really enjoyed playing and the process of discovering music, and I suppose it just gradually became what I wanted to do over time.

How does it feel to perform in a concert?

It’s a wonderful feeling to be on stage and sharing the music with a live audience, it’s always a special occasion.

What’s your favourite piece of music to play?

That’s a difficult question to answer; it’s basically whatever I’m playing at the moment. So it changes often, and of course there’s so much music that I’ve yet to discover, which is also exciting.

And what is your favourite to listen to?

It’s very hard to pick a favourite, but the top of my Spotify wrapped last year was Bob Marley.   In recent months I’ve also really enjoyed the opportunity of putting together playlists for BBC Classical Focus for their Radio 3 In Tune mixtape as it pulls your current favourites together.

Which is your favourite venue at which you’ve performed?

My favourite venue is the Royal Concert Hall Nottingham as it’s where I grew up listening to concerts.

What does being a Resident Artist at the Southbank Centre mean to you?

It’s a wonderful opportunity to be playing there regularly this season, it’s a great centre of music where I’ve always loved playing and listening to concerts.

What, if anything, would you change about classical concerts?

Hard to say really, but I think the range of places in which classical music is performed.

Who, if anyone, do you turn to for feedback on your performances? And do you pay much attention to reviews?

My teacher Hannah Roberts, and as for reviews, I don’t read them.

And lastly, if you could collaborate with any performer, composer, conductor or orchestra who would it be?

There are so many wonderful people out there in each of those fields and I like the range and variety of them all; it’s an impossible choice!