From Nov. 4-7, internationally renowned cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason will make his Cleveland debut by preforming at Severance Hall with the Cleveland Orchestra. Here are some things to know about the cellist.
He’s excited to play in Cleveland.
Kanneh-Mason will be performing Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E Minor with the Orchestra, with the performance being bookended by an opening performance[1] of a work from British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and closed with Antonin Dvorak[2]’s Sixth Symphony. “I’m looking forward, of course, to coming to Cleveland and to play with the orchestra,” Kanneh-Mason says. “It’s an orchestra that I really admire.”
He was the first Black BBC Young Musician winner.In 2016, Kanneh-Mason became the first black winner of BBC Young Musician, a televised national music competition. “Taking part in the competition was really valuable,” Kanneh-Mason says, “and I think my playing really developed over that process.”
He’s performed for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.At 19-years-old, Kanneh-Mason performed at the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, an event that drew an estimated 29 million viewers in the United States. Kanneh-Mason isn’t sure how he got on the royal couple’s radar, but he’s grateful for the experience. “It seemed like a great, you know a very significant occasion and a great opportunity also to perform with a very global audience,” he says.
