Sheku Kanneh-Mason
Cello
Cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason’s mission is to make music accessible to all, whether that's performing for children
in a school hall, at an underground club, or in the world’s leading concert venues. Highlights of the 24/25 season
include the Konzerthaus Berlin as Artist in Residence, Lucerne Festival 2024 as Artiste Étoile, Czech Philharmonic
in Prague and on tour with both Jakub Hrůša and Semyon Bychkov, Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra with Paavo Järvi,
WDR Symphony Cologne with Cristian Măcelaru, Orchestre National de Lyon with Leonard Slatkin, Sinfonia of
London with John Wilson on tour in the UK, SWR Symphony Stuttgart with Christoph Eschenbach, Camerata
Salzburg on tour, Pittsburgh Symphony with Manfred Honeck, New World Symphony with Stéphane Denève,
Philadelphia Orchestra with Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and City of Birmingham Symphony with Kazuki Yamada.
With his pianist sister, Isata, he makes his duo recital debut in recital debut at New York’s Carnegie Hall Stern
Auditorium in a programme featuring a newly commissioned piece by Natalie Klouda. The pair also appear on
tour in Bordeaux, Rome, Cincinnati, Toronto, Philadelphia, Dublin, Munich, Berlin, Antwerp, Haarlem, the
Rheingau Festival, and at London’s Wigmore Hall. Sheku also appears with duo partners guitarist Plinio
Fernandes, and jazz pianist Harry Baker.
Since his debut in 2017, Sheku has performed every summer at the BBC Proms, including as soloist at the 2023
Last Night of the Proms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Marin Alsop. In 2024, his family-friendly Proms
appearances with the Fantasia Orchestra were designed to introduce orchestral classical music to a new
generation of music lovers. Sheku also returns to Antigua, where he has family connections, as an ambassador
for the Antigua and Barbuda Youth Symphony Orchestra.
A Decca Classics recording artist, Sheku appears on the May 2024 recording of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto
alongside Nicola Benedetti, Benjamin Grosvenor, and the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Santtu-Matias
Rouvali. His 2022 album, Song, showcases his innately lyrical playing in a wide and varied range of arrangements
and collaborations. Sheku’s 2020 album Elgar reached No. 8 in the overall Official UK Album Chart, making him
the first ever cellist to reach the UK Top 10. Sheet music collections of his performance repertoire along with his
own arrangements and compositions are published by Faber.
Sheku is a graduate of London’s Royal Academy of Music where he studied with Hannah Roberts and in May
2022 was appointed as the Academy’s first Menuhin Visiting Professor of Performance Mentoring. In 2024 he
accepted the role as patron of UK Music Masters and remains an ambassador for both Juvenile Diabetes
Research Foundation and Future Talent. Sheku was appointed a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the
British Empire (MBE) in the 2020 New Year’s Honours List. After winning the BBC Young Musician competition
in 2016, Sheku’s performance at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at Windsor Castle in 2018 was
watched by two billion people worldwide. He plays a Matteo Goffriller cello from 1700 which is on indefinite
loan to him.
