Cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and pianist Benjamin Grosvenor bring together two of the most compelling voices of their generation. Their performances combine radiant lyricism with deep musical insight, balancing intimacy and grandeur. Together, they create a dialogue of extraordinary sensitivity and expressive power.

Program:

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)

Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 2, "Moonlight"

Franz Liszt (1811–1896)

Vallée d'Obermann

Mephisto Waltz No. 1, S.514

Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)

Nocturne No. 20 in C-sharp minor, Op. posth

Earl Wild (1915–2010)

Grande Fantasy on Gershwin's Porgy and Bess

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About the artist

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. Highlights of the 25/26 season include the prestigious position as Arist in Residence at the New York Philharmonic, touring with the London Philharmonic, and appearances with the Orchestre de Paris, Orchestra of Santa Cecilia Rome, the Philharmonia Orchestra London, the Auckland Philharmonia, and the Baltimore, Vienna, and Sydney symphony orchestras.

Sheku will perform Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with his pianist sister, Isata, and violinist Tai Murray and the Chineke! Orchestra on tour in Europe, and with Isata and their brother, Braimah, as violinist on a North American tour in Detroit, Ottawa, Naples (Florida), and Seattle. Sheku also gives the world première of Edmund Finnis’s Cello Concerto, which was written for him, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Roberto Gonzalez Monjas, with further performances of the work with the Dresden Philharmonic, Melbourne Symphony, and London Symphony orchestras.

Sheku continues his collaboration with Isata for a European duo recital tour in February, taking in Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Berlin, Geneva, Turin, Amsterdam, and London’s Wigmore Hall, where later in the 25/26 season Sheku and Isata return to play chamber music with two more of their siblings, Braimah and Jeneba. In North America, the duo will resume their recital tour including Boston, Washington D.C., Cleveland, and New York’s Lincoln Center. 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 released Shostakovich & Britten in May 2025, featuring Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 2, performed with John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London, alongside the cello sonatas of Shostakovich and Britten, which he recorded with Isata Kanneh-Mason. September 2025 sees the release of the second Kanneh-Mason family album, River of Music, also on Decca Classics. Sheku’s 2022 album, Song, showcased his innately lyrical playing in a wide range of arrangements and collaborations, and his 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 published by Faber.

Sheku is a graduate of London’s Royal Academy of Music where he studied with Hannah Roberts and in May 2022 he 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 Breakthrough T1D 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.

British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor has an acclaimed international career as a soloist and chamber musician, which is reflected in his extensive discography on Decca Classics.

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During his 2025/26 season, Benjamin debuts with the Swedish Radio (Beethoven 1), performs Ravel’s G major Concerto with Filharmonica della Scala, San Diego Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony and Orchestre Svizzera Italiana and closes the Philharmonia Orchestra’s 80th anniversary season with a UK tour of Stauss’s Burleske. He also returns to the Concertgebouw Amsterdam for his debut performance with John Wilson’s Sinfonia of London.

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Recital highlights this season include Carnegie Hall, Chicago, Amsterdam, Singapore and London. He makes his debut at Berlin’s Boulez Saal with Kian Soltani and at Vienna’s Muzikverein and Heidelberger Frühling with his Piano Quartet featuring Hyeyoon Park, Timothy Ridout and Kian Soltani.

Previous concerto engagements have included Cleveland, Boston Symphony, NHK Symphony, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and Orchestre National de France. Benjamin performs with all the major UK orchestras and regularly appears at the BBC Proms, most recently with Ravel G major (2025) and Busoni (2024), and has also performed a solo recital and at the First and Last Nights.

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Benjamin’s recent conductor collaborations include Marin Alsop, Elim Chan, Edward Gardner, Manfred Honneck, Paavo Jarvi, Nathalie Stutzmann, Krzysztof Urbanski and Kazuki Yamada.

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A celebrated recitalist, recent engagements have included Berliner Konzerthaus, Wigmore Hall, Southbank Centre, Luxembourg Philharmonie, Lucerne and at Klavierfest Ruhr, Mantaa and La Roque d’Anthéron Festivals. He was a featured artist at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris and in 2024 premiered Hommage à Liszt by Brett Dean in Lucerne, Chicago and London.

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Benjamin has an impressive and multi award-winning discography stretching back to 2011 on Decca Classics, with the most recent release being of solo repertoire by Chopin.

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Press for Benjamin Grosvenor

“Grosvenor is the real deal” (Financial Times, 2023)

“Everything Grosvenor touches turns to gold” (Classical Source, 2022)

“A genius who has reached the height of his interpretive powers” (Spectator, 2023)

“Monumental and brilliant” (Taggespiegel, 2024)

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Media