Sheku Kanneh-Mason

About

Sheku Kanneh-Mason is a British cellist born in 1999 in Nottingham who, at 17, became the first Black musician to win the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition in its 38-year history. His performance at the 2018 wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle was watched by nearly two billion people worldwide. His 2020 album Elgar, recorded with Sir Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra, reached No. 8 on the UK Album Chart - making him the first cellist ever to break into the UK Top 10. A Decca Classics artist, he has since released albums ranging from Shostakovich and Britten to collaborative family recordings.

1.8M

monthly listeners on Spotify

108K

YouTube subscribers

ranking on the official British album chart (Elgar, 2020)

on the British classical album chart (Inspiration, 2018)

What's new

2026-09
Sheku Kanneh-Mason performs at BBC Proms in Royal Albert Hall on 6 September 2026 - exactly ten years after his victory at BBC Young Musician - with a newly commissioned triple concerto by Gwilym Simcock.
2026-08
He made his debut with Sydney Symphony Orchestra and conductor Simone Young at Sydney Opera House with Elgar's Cello Concerto and received excellent reviews.
2026-01
A finger injury forced Kanneh-Mason to cancel his European tour scheduled from 5 February to 2 March 2026, including concerts in Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam and London.
2025-11
Kanneh-Mason gave the world premiere of Edmund Finnis' Cello Concerto, written for him, with Los Angeles Philharmonic under Roberto González-Monjas.
2025-09
The family album River of Music - the Kanneh-Mason family's second joint album - was released on Decca Classics in September 2025.