Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason
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Anyone who saw Sheku Kanneh-Mason play the cello at the Royal Wedding, or win BBC Young Musician of the Year at the age of only 17, will realise that he comes from the most extraordinary family. Two of his siblings are also Young Musician finalists, and his older sister, Isata, is a professional pianist. Collectively the seven Kanneh-Mason children make music wherever they are. During lockdown, that was the family home in Nottingham, from which they performed live on Facebook.
Michael Berkeley\\u2019s guest is their mother, Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason: the woman who inspires them, who gets up before dawn to drive them to lessons and trains, who organises their practice schedules, who dances with them in the kitchen. She tells Michael Berkeley about how she does it \\u2013 and why. She looks back on her childhood in Sierra Leone, and the huge transition of coming to live with her grandparents in Wales after her father died. She reveals her own musical ambition \\u2013 to play the violin \\u2013 and discusses how she manages to get the children to practise. She explores with Michael the question of prejudice in the classical music world. And she plays the reggae song the family will be dancing to at Christmas.
Other choices include Verdi\\u2019s \\u201cChorus of the Hebrew Slaves\\u201d, Shostakovich\\u2019s Second Piano Trio, Mozart\\u2019s Requiem, Schubert\\u2019s Trout Quintet and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor\\u2019s \\u201cDeep River\\u201d.
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 3\\nProduced by Elizabeth Burke
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