Sheku Kanneh-Mason

Sheku Kanneh-Mason grew up in Nottingham as one of seven musically gifted siblings, the children of Stuart Mason, of Antiguan descent, and Dr Kadiatu Kanneh, from Sierra Leone. He began playing the cello at six years old and had achieved the highest Grade 8 examination marks in the entire UK by age nine, an early sign of the extraordinary technical ability that would define his career.

In 2015, Kanneh-Mason and several of his siblings performed together as The Kanneh-Masons on Britain's Got Talent, an experience he later credited with easing his nerves ahead of an even bigger stage. The following year, at just 17, he won BBC Young Musician of the Year with an electric performance of Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1, becoming the first Black musician to win the competition since its launch in 1978.

The win transformed Kanneh-Mason's career almost overnight. His home city of Nottingham named a double-decker bus in his honour, and in 2018 he was invited to perform at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, watched by an estimated global audience of billions. His debut album, Inspiration, released in 2018, made him the youngest cellist ever to chart on the UK's official albums countdown.

Kanneh-Mason has continued to build an internationally acclaimed career, recording further albums including a celebrated performance of the Elgar Cello Concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle. He was appointed MBE in 2020, and remains one of the most prominent classical musicians to have emerged from Britain in a generation, using his platform to advocate for greater diversity in classical music.