Shriver Hall Concert Series to Present Sheku And Isata Kanneh-Mason In Recital

Shriver Hall Concert Series will present sibling duo Sheku and Isata Kanneh-Mason on Sunday, May 1, 2022 at 5:30pm. Sheku and Isata are featured in a recital of timeless sonatas including Beethoven's Cello Sonata in C Major, Op. 102, No. 1; Shostakovich's Cello Sonata in D minor, Op. 40; Britten's Cello Sonata in C Major, Op. 65; and Frank Bridge's Cello Sonata in D minor.

22-year old cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason was named the BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2016, and gained further recognition performing at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at Windsor Castle in 2018, watched by nearly two billion people globally. Since 2017, Sheku has performed every summer at the BBC Proms.

Pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason is the recipient of the 2021 Leonard Bernstein Award, and a 2020 Opus Klassik award for best young artist. Her albums released on Decca Classics, Romance - The Piano Music of Clara Schumann and Summertime, a journey through the varied piano repertoire of 20th-century America, topped the UK classical charts. Isata is the Young Artist in Residence with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and is one of the European Concert Hall Organization's Rising Stars.

Sheku and Isata made their Baltimore debut in 2019 on Shriver Hall Concert Series' Discovery Series.

Concert Information

Sheku Kanneh-Mason, cello
Isata Kanneh-Mason, piano
Sunday, May 1, 2022 at 5:30pm (Pre-Concert Talk at 4:30pm)
Shriver Hall | 3400 N. Charles Street | Baltimore, MD 21218
Tickets: $44 for seated ticket or home livestream ($10 student tickets)
Link: https://shriverconcerts.org/kanneh-mason

Beethoven - Cello Sonata in C Major, Op. 102, No. 1
Shostakovich - Cello Sonata in D minor, Op. 40
Frank Bridge - Cello Sonata in D minor
Britten - Cello Sonata in C Major, Op. 65

About Sheku Kanneh-Mason

Sheku Kanneh-Mason is already in great demand from major orchestras and concert halls worldwide. He became a household name in 2018 after performing at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at Windsor Castle, his performance having been greeted with universal excitement after being watched by nearly two billion people globally. Sheku initially garnered renown as the winner of the 2016 BBC Young Musician competition, the first Black musician to take the title. He has released two chart-topping albums on the Decca Classics label, Inspiration in 2018 and Elgar in 2020. The latter reached No. 8 in the overall UK Official Album Chart, making Sheku the first cellist in history to reach the UK Top 10.

Sheku has made debuts with orchestras such as the Seattle Symphony, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Stockholm Philharmonic, the Atlanta Symphony, Japan Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, London Philharmonic, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, and Baltimore Symphony orchestras. Forthcoming highlights include performances with the Cleveland Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Barcelona Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic, and London Philharmonic orchestras, and on tour with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

In recital, Sheku has performed at illustrious venues and festivals around the world, including Wigmore Hall London, Edinburgh, Cheltenham, and Aldeburgh Festivals, Zurich Tonhalle, Lucerne Festival, Festival de Saint- Denis, Verbier Festival, Théâtre des Champs Elysées Paris, Teatro della Pergola Florence, L'Auditori Barcelona, the Auditorio Nacional Madrid, and Carnegie Hall New York. Current and future seasons include appearances at the Barbican Hall London, Berliner Philharmonie, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Suntory Hall Tokyo, and tours of North America, Italy, South Korea and China.

Since his debut in 2017, Sheku has performed every summer at the BBC Proms, including in 2020 when he gave a breath-taking recital performance with his sister, Isata, to an empty auditorium due to the Covid-19 pandemic. He has performed at the BAFTA awards ceremony twice in 2017 and 2018, is the winner of Best Classical Artist at the Global Awards in 2020 and 2021 (the latter as part of the Kanneh-Mason family), and received the 2020 Royal Philharmonic Society's Young Artists' Award.

Sheku continues his studies with Hannah Roberts at the Royal Academy of Music in London as a Bicentenary Fellow. He began learning the cello at the age of six with Sarah Huson-Whyte and then Ben Davies at the Junior Department of the Royal Academy of Music. He has received masterclass tuition from Guy Johnston, Ralph Kirshbaum, Robert Max, Alexander Baillie, Steven Doane, Rafael Wallfisch, Jo Cole, Melissa Phelps, Julian Lloyd Webber, Frans Helmerson and Miklos Perenyi.

Sheku was appointed a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2020 New Year's Honours List. He plays a Matteo Goffriller cello from 1700 which is on indefinite loan to him. Learn more at www.shekukannehmason.com.

About Isata Kanneh-Mason

Isata Kanneh-Mason is the recipient of the 2021 Leonard Bernstein Award, a 2020 Opus Klassik award for best young artist and, as a member of the Kanneh-Mason family, the 2021 best classical artist at the Global Awards.

Her debut album on Decca Classics, Romance - the Piano Music of Clara Schumann, drew popular and critical acclaim, entering the UK classical charts at No. 1 when it was released in July 2019 and leading Gramophone magazine to extol the recording as "one of the most charming and engaging debuts" and Classic FM to praise Isata as "a player of considerable talent". This was followed in July 2021 by Summertime, featuring Barber's Piano Sonata and a world premiere recording of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Impromptu in B minor. Her most recent release, Muse with brother, Sheku features the Rachmaninov and Barber Sonatas for cello and piano.

Since graduation from London's Royal Academy of Music, Isata has embarked on a successful and increasingly busy concert career as a solo artist, with concerto appearances, solo recitals and chamber concerts throughout the UK and abroad. During the UK's Covid-19 lockdown in spring 2020, Isata and her siblings performed livestreamed events from their family home in Nottingham, which garnered over one million views. She recently made her Wigmore Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall, London solo piano debuts. In the 21/22 season, Isata continues as Young Artist in Residence with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

Highlights of this and last season include the Royal Philharmonic at the Edinburgh Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich, Dallas Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestras, and recital tours of North America, both piano solo and with brother, Sheku.

Isata is currently one of the European Concert Hall Organisation's Rising Stars, performing recitals at many of the continent's most illustrious concert venues throughout 21/22.
She completed her undergraduate degree at the Academy as an Elton John scholar, and performed with Sir Elton in 2013 in Los Angeles. Isata is also grateful for support from the Nottingham Soroptimist Trust, Mr and Mrs John Bryden, Frank White, and Awards for Young Musicians. She is currently continuing her studies at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin with Kirill Gerstein. Learn more at www.isatakannehmason.com.

About Shriver Hall Concert Series
For more than 50 years, Shriver Hall Concert Series (SHCS) has been "Baltimore's finest importer of classical music talent" (The Baltimore Sun) and the area's premier presenter of chamber music ensembles and solo recitalists with a mission to craft performances and educational programs at the highest level of excellence. A 5-time recipient of Baltimore Magazine's distinction "Best Classical Music" in its annual "Best of Baltimore" issue, the coveted subscription series features many of the world's most renowned soloists and ensembles, presented in The Johns Hopkins University's Shriver Hall.

Founded in 1966 by Dr. Ernest Bueding, a pharmacologist at The Johns Hopkins University, and a group of similarly dedicated music enthusiasts, SHCS set out to make an important contribution to the vitality of an already vibrant city. When flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal walked onto the stage of Shriver Hall for the first concert, more than 1,100 people witnessed the launch of what is now recognized as a remarkable success story: Shriver Hall Concert Series. In the succeeding years SHCS has presented hundreds of acclaimed and emerging International Artists in classical chamber music and recitals and a legacy of important debuts and premieres. In addition, SHCS collaborates with local schools and subsidizes hundreds of student tickets each season.

The list of artists presented by SHCS is remarkable-Radu Lupu, Murray Perahia, Ewa Podlés, Maurizio Pollini, Jacqueline du Pré, Mstislav Rostropovich, Jordi Savall, András Schiff, Rudolf Serkin, Janos Starker, Daniil Trifonov, Lynn Harrell, Emmanuel Ax, Alban Berg Quartet, Guarneri Quartet, Kronos Quartet, Cleveland Quartet, and Quartetto Italiano, among many others. SHCS also has a history of championing important musicians early in their careers, including Richard Goode, Hilary Hahn, Hélène Grimaud, Dawn Upshaw, Lang Lang, and the Emerson String Quartet. Commissioned composers include Timo Andres, Sebastian Currier, Jonathan Leshnoff, James Lee III, Hannah Lash, and Nina C. Young.

Designed specifically for the community, SHCS offers the Discovery Series, a series of free concerts presented in venues throughout the region focused on artists emerging on the national and international scene. Artists featured include Narek Hakhnazaryan, Colin Currie, Xavier Foley, and the Dover Quartet. SHCS also offers the annual Spring Lecture Series, a series of free talks focused on annual topics related to the intersection of music and society, and a variety of student programs.

For more information, visit www.shriverconcerts.org.

Photo Credit: Jake Turney

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