Music to my Ears: Pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason
From discovering Rachmaninov on CD in the car with her family to streaming Yuja Wang and Beyoncé today, we hear about the music that’s shaped the vibrant young pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason
BBC Music Magazine speaks to pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason about the music (and literature) that’s shaped who she is today.
Isata graced our screens back in 2014, when she reached the Piano Category Finals of BBC Young Musician, a competition her brother Sheku then went on to win two years later. The pair come from one of the best known musical families in the UK, with all eight siblings either professional or highly gifted instrumentalists.
Despite still being only 23 years old, last year Isata released her debut disc for Decca Classics: Romance, a selection of piano works by Clara Schumann. In her review of the recording, our managing editor Rebecca Franks called her ‘a pianist who makes lines sing beautifully and virtuosic passages dance, finding intimacy and eloquence at telling moments.’
Isata met Rebecca at the Royal Academy of Music – where she is studying for a postgraduate degree – earlier this year before the UK lockdown.
How to download the Music to my Ears podcast
Download this episode as an mp3
Click here to open the mp3 player.
Google Chrome:
Click on the three little dots to the right of the player and click 'Download'.
Safari/Firefox/Other Browsers:
Right click (or control click on Mac computers) on the player and select 'Save Audio As...'. Occasionally, on Safari it may ask you to select 'Download video'. If this is the case, select 'Download video' and it will download as an audio file (mp3) as normal.
Listen to Isata's musical choices here:
