When Jeneba Kanneh-Mason performs at the Matsqui Centennial Auditorium on Friday, February 20, at 7:30 p.m., she will be the third member of her illustrious musical family to do so.
Stuart Mason, a business executive, and Dr. Kadiatu Kanneh, formerly a university lecturer, raised a family of seven immensely talented children in Nottingham, England.
The Vancouver Recital Society brought cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason to Vancouver in 2017 fresh off his win of the prestigious BBC Young Musician Award. His elder sister Isata played piano. We were very fortunate to bring them to Abbotsford to play for us on December 5 of that year.
At that time, they were two rising young talents. Five months later, in May of 2018, Sheku played for the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. His fame shot into the stratosphere.
Soon the entire family was on the classical music map. All seven siblings performed at the Orpheum in Vancouver in May of 2023. Kadiatu has written a book about this remarkable family—The House of Music: Raising the Kanneh-Masons.
Jeneba is the fifth child but the third to embark on a solo performing career after Isata and Sheku. On the Sunday just past, selections from her first recording Jane Austen’s Piano were featured on the CBC program In Concert.
Two major works take up the first half of her program in Abbotsford. Bach’s Partita No. 5 consists of seven short dances, following a pattern common in the Baroque era that Bach used extensively for solo works as well as for his beloved orchestral suites.
Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor was nicknamed Tempest after Shakespeare’s play by that name.
Jeneba plays with a maturity that is remarkable in a young musician. The Valley Concert Society is grateful to Tom Lee Music for providing a Steinway Piano for this performance. We are in for a very memorable concert.
Tickets are available at www.valleyconcertsociety.com at $32 for adults and $20 for students. Call 604-289-3377 for more information.
John Wiebe - President
The Valley Concert Society