Sheku Kanneh-Mason
Cello
⟹ United Kingdom, 1999
⟹ 2nd x Cello Biënnale (2018 & 2026)
⟹ Plays a Matteo Goffriller from 1700
Sheku Kanneh-Mason has set himself the goal of making music accessible for everyone, whether he performs for children in a sports hall, in an underground club, or in the world’s most prestigious concert halls.
Signed to Decca Classics, he released the album Shostakovich & Britten in May 2025, featuring Shostakovich’s second cello concerto and Britten’s cello sonatas, which he recorded with his sister Isata Kanneh-Mason. In September 2025 the Kanneh-Mason family’s second album, River of Music, was released. His 2020 album Elgar reached number 8 in the UK’s overall album chart, making him the first cellist ever to reach the British top 10.
In February 2026, he had to cancel his recital with his sister Isata in the Great Cellists series due to an injury, but in 2028, he will still perform in this series from the Muziekgebouw and the Cello Biënnale.
Sheku studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London, with Hannah Roberts, and in May 2022, he was appointed the academy’s first Menuhin Visiting Professor of Performance Mentoring. After winning the 2016 BBC Young Musician competition, Sheku’s performance during the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at Windsor Castle in 2018 was watched by two billion people worldwide.
