Sheku and Isata Kanneh-Mason

Kanneh-Masons: Sibling Harmony at the Highest Level

That Isata and Sheku Kanneh-Masons’ "musicality overwhelms" (Süddeutsche Zeitung) has been evident long before their Decca debut album Muse. With it, they immediately sparked the desire to hear more from this wonderfully balanced and long-rehearsed "star duo" (The Independent).

This wish is fulfilled by the almost symbiotically harmonizing siblings with a new concert program in the Chamber Music Hall.

Whether in the opening unison, the cantabile main theme, or the brilliant climaxes toward the end, the young artists perform Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s Sonata in B major with stylistic confidence and great artistic sensitivity. In Nadia Boulanger’s Trois pièces, the musical dialogue between Sheku and Isata reflects both the moving, lyrical depth and the rhythmic power and contrapuntal sophistication of arguably the most influential composition teacher of the 20th century. And with Schumann’s Five Pieces, Op. 102 – marked by Nordic, Hungarian, and other “folk tones” – as well as Rebecca Clarke’s award-winning Sonata in the arrangement for cello and piano, the siblings’ interpretation promises to set new standards.

Program and cast

Sheku Kanneh-Mason, cello
Isata Kanneh-Mason, piano

Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Sonata in B major, Op. 45 for cello and piano
Nadia Boulanger: Trois pièces for cello and piano
Schumann: Five Pieces in Folk Style, Op. 102
Rebecca Clarke: Sonata for viola and piano (arranged for cello and piano)