sheku kanneh-mason + isata kanneh-mason
3 december 2024 / 8.30pm / rock city, nottingham
100% funded (23 tickets remaining)
Sheku and Isata Kanneh-Mason join forces for their first noisenights tour together, performing in Nottingham's iconic Rock City for one night only
7pm: doors open
7.15pm: sharp little bones set
8pm: recommended latest arrival
8.30pm: sheku + isata set
what are noisenights?
noisenights are our vision for the future of classical music: crowdfunded gigs taking world-leading musicians to iconic independent venues.
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At the centre of every noisenight is a one-hour classical set. We platform international soloists and ensembles while also giving opportunities to outstanding new artists. All noisenights take place in gig venues where you get to experience classical music up close.
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Due to the venue's license, this noisenight is strictly 14+.
the venue:
Opened in 1980, the first band scheduled to play at Rock City were Iron Maiden, but sadly the gig had to be postponed as the electrics were not finished. So instead The Undertones, led by Feargal Sharkey, stepped up and finished the first ever Rock City gig with a rendition of Teenage Kicks.
Ever since then, the venue has cemented its legendary status, going on to host some of the biggest names in alternative music. It has received numerous awards, including Kerrang! magazine's Venue of the Year for ten consecutive years.
the music:
Sheku and Isata Kanneh-Mason return to noisenights for a tour exploring the diverse range of music written for piano and cello. Taking classical music to some of the nations most iconic gig venues for the first time, they have put together a programme reflecting their favourite music, including original arrangements by Sheku and Isata themselves. Expect everything from newly re-imagined songs by Dvorak and Rachmaninoff, to the great sonatas of Shostakovich and Mendelssohn.
We're very grateful to Yamaha for supplying a beautiful Yamaha CFX for Isata and Sheku to perform this programme.
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the programme:
Mendelssohn - Cello Sonata No. 1
Dvorak - Song to the Moon (from Rusalka)
Rachmaninoff - 14 Romances, Op. 34 - No. 1, The Muse
Shostakovich - Cello Sonata in D minor
trad. (arr. Kanneh-Mason) - In the Bleak Midwinter
sheku kanneh-mason:
Cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason’s mission is to make music accessible to all, whether that's performing for children in a school hall, at an underground club, or in the world’s leading concert venues.
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Highlights of the 24/25 season include the Konzerthaus Berlin as Artist in Residence, Lucerne Festival 2024 as Artiste É toile, Czech Philharmonic in Prague and on tour with both Jakub Hrůša and Semyon Bychkov, Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra with Paavo Järvi, WDR Symphony Cologne with Cristian Măcelaru, Orchestre National de Lyon with Leonard Slatkin, Sinfonia of London with John Wilson on tour in the UK, SWR Symphony Stuttgart with Christoph Eschenbach, Camerata Salzburg on tour, Pittsburgh Symphony with Manfred Honeck, New World Symphony with Stéphane Denève, Philadelphia Orchestra with Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and City of Birmingham Symphony with Kazuki Yamada.
With his pianist sister, Isata, he makes his duo recital debut in recital debut at New York’s Carnegie Hall Stern Auditorium in a programme featuring a newly commissioned piece by Natalie Klouda. The pair also appear on tour in Bordeaux, Rome, Cincinnati, Toronto, Philadelphia, Dublin, Munich, Berlin, Antwerp, Haarlem, the Rheingau Festival, and at London’s Wigmore Hall. Sheku also appears with duo partners guitarist Plinio Fernandes, and jazz pianist Harry Baker.
Since his debut in 2017, Sheku has performed every summer at the BBC Proms, including as soloist at the 2023 Last Night of the Proms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Marin Alsop. In 2024, his family-friendly Proms appearances with the Fantasia Orchestra were designed to introduce orchestral classical music to a new generation of music lovers. Sheku also returns to Antigua, where he has family connections, as an ambassador for the Antigua and Barbuda Youth Symphony Orchestra.
A Decca Classics recording artist, Sheku appears on the May 2024 recording of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto alongside Nicola Benedetti, Benjamin Grosvenor, and the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Santtu-Matias Rouvali. His 2022 album, Song, showcases his innately lyrical playing in a wide and varied range of arrangements and collaborations. Sheku’s 2020 album Elgar reached No. 8 in the overall Official UK Album Chart, making him the first ever cellist to reach the UK Top 10. Sheet music collections of his performance repertoire along with his own arrangements and compositions are p ublished by Faber.
Sheku is a graduate of London’s Royal Academy of Music where he studied with Hannah Roberts and in May 2022 was appointed as the Academy’s first Menuhin Visiting Professor of Performance Mentoring. In 2024 he accepted the role as patron of UK Music Masters and remains an ambassador for both Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and Future Talent. Sheku was appointed a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2020 New Year’s Honours List. After winning the BBC Young Musician competition in 2016, Sheku’s performance at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at Windsor Castle in 2018 was watched by two billion people worldwide. He plays a Matteo Goffriller cello from 1700 which is on indefinite loan to him.
isata kanneh-mason:
Pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason is in great demand internationally as a soloist and chamber musician. She offers eclectic and interesting repertoire with recital programmes encompassing music from Haydn and Mozart via Fanny Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann, Chopin and Brahms to Gershwin and beyond.
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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 23/24 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, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Cleveland Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, and Stockholm Philharmonic. With her cellist brother, Sheku, she appears in recital in Japan, Singapore, and South Korea in addition to an extensive European recital tour. 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.
In 2022/23 Isata made successful debuts at the Barbican, Queen Elizabeth and Wigmore halls in London, the Philharmonie Berlin, National Concert Hall Dublin, Perth Concert Hall and Prinzregententheater Munich. As concerto soloist, she appeared with orchestras such as the New World Symphony Miami, City of Birmingham Symphony, Barcelona Symphony, Geneva Chamber Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic and was the Artist in Residence with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Isata is a Decca Classics recording artist. Her 2019 album, Romance – the Piano Music of Clara Schumann, entered the UK classical charts at No. 1, Gramophone magazine extolling the recording as “one of the most charming and engaging debuts”. This was followed by 2021’s Summertime, featuring 20th-century American repertoire including a world premiere recording of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Impromptu in B minor and 2023’s endearingly titled album Childhood Tales is a tour-de-force showcase of music inspired by a nostalgia for youth.
2021 also saw the release of Isata’s first duo album, Muse, with her brother Sheku Kanneh-Mason, demonstrating the siblings’ musical empathy and rapport borne from years of playing and performing together. Isata and Sheku were selected to perform in recital during the 2020 BBC Proms, which was a vastly reduced festival due to the Covid-19 pandemic and they performed for cameras to an empty auditorium. 2023 sees her BBC Proms solo debut, this time to a fully open Royal Albert Hall, alongside Ryan Bancroft and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.
Isata was an ECHO Rising Star in 21/22 performing in many of Europe’s finest halls and she is also the recipient of the coveted Leonard Bernstein Award, an Opus Klassik award for best young artist and is one of the Konzerthaus Dortmund’s Junge Wilde artists.
To buy tickets for this event please visit our events page: noisenight188: Sheku + Isata tickets from Skiddle .
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