UCSB Arts & Lectures presents Sheku Kanneh-Mason, cello and Isata Kanneh-Mason, piano, 7 p.m. Thursday, May 29 at UCSB’s Campbell Hall.
Since their April 2022 Santa Barbara debut, siblings Sheku and Isata Kanneh-Mason have joined the ranks of the classical world’s most sought-after musicians, UCSB Arts & Lectures said.
Hailing from one of Britain’s most talented musical families, Isata is a recipient of the Leonard Bernstein Award and an Opus Klassik award, and Sheku won the BBC Young Musician competition in 2016.
“The duo’s intuitive understanding and remarkable rapport will be on full display in this richly evocative recital exploring the legacy of late Romantic and modern chamber music,” UCSB Arts & Lectures said.
Both Isata and Sheku appear on Sheku’s latest recording for Decca, Shostakovich & Britten, released May 9.
The program includes:
Felix Mendelssohn’s “Cello Sonata No. 1 in B-flat major, op. 45;”
Gabriel Fauré’s “Cello Sonata No. 1 in D minor, op. 109;” Natalie Klouda’s “Tor Mordôn;” and Francis Poulenc’s “Cello Sonata, FP 143.”
Cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason’s career and performances span the globe. Whether performing for children in a school hall, at an underground club or in the world’s leading concert venues, Sheku’s mission is to make music accessible to all.
Sheku’s performance at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at Windsor Castle in 2018 was viewed by two billion people worldwide.
Highlights of the 2023-24 season include the Last Night of the Proms with the BBC Symphony and Marin Alsop, and performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Orquesta Nacional de España, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, and Chicago Symphony.
With his sister Isata, Sheku appears in recital in Japan, Singapore and South Korea in addition to a European recital tour.
Since his debut in 2017, Sheku has performed every summer at the BBC Proms, including in 2020 when he gave a recital performance with Isata to an empty auditorium due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason performs internationally as a soloist and chamber musician. She offers an eclectic repertoire with recital programs encompassing music from Haydn and Mozart via Fanny Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann, Chopin and Brahms to Gershwin.
In concerto, she is equally at home in Felix Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann (whose piano concerto featured on Isata’s chart-topping debut recording) as in Prokofiev and Dohnányi.
Highlights of the 2023-24 season include performances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra Ottawa, London Mozart Players, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on tour in the USA and Germany, Cleveland Orchestra, and Stockholm Philharmonic.
Isata also gives a series of solo recitals on tour in the USA and Canada, as well as at London’s Wigmore Hall, the Lucerne Festival and across Germany.
Tickets are $32.50-$77.50, general public; $10 UCSB students with current student ID.
For tickets or more information, call UCSB Arts & Lectures, 805-893-3535, or buy online at www.ArtsAndLectures.UCSB.edu, or www.Lobero.org.