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Isata Kanneh-Mason

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Isata Kanneh-Mason is a British pianist. She was born on 27 May 1996 and grew up in Nottingham, the first child of Stuart Mason, who is of Antiguan descent, and Kadiatu Kanneh, who comes from Sierra Leone and in 2020 wrote the book House of Music: Raising the Kanneh-Masons. She attended the Purcell School and then studied at the Royal Academy of Music, with the Sir Elton John Scholarship. In 2013 she played in Los Angeles with Elton John himself. Her teachers were Joanna MacGregor and Carole Presland.

Music and breakthrough

In 2021 and 2022 she was an ECHO Rising Star and she received the Leonard Bernstein Award. She also won an Opus Klassik as best young artist. In the 2022 and 2023 season she was artist-in-residence at the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2023 she made her solo debut at the BBC Proms with Prokofiev's third piano concerto, accompanied by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. She often collaborates with her brother, the cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason.

Influence

Her first album was Romance: The Piano Music of Clara Schumann from 2019, followed by Summertime in 2021, Childhood Tales in 2023 and an album of works by Mendelssohn in 2024, among others. Her debut album was devoted to a woman composer, and together with her brother Sheku she is part of a musical family that brought the classical world to the attention of a wide audience.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to a piece by Clara Schumann on Romance and notice the melody in the right hand: where does the piano sing, and where does the playing become faster and more restless?

Discography

Studio albums

Categories: Artists