“The 19-year-old virtuoso Sheku Kanneh-Mason became a household name after his solo performance at the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle last May,” writes Sarah Bonnette in Wednesday’s (1/16) Times Picayune (New Orleans). “He played Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E minor with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra on Jan. 11… ‘It’s my favorite piece, and I’ve been wanting to perform it for a while,’ he said. It was one of three concerts at which Kanneh-Mason [brought] his immense talent to the New Orleans area for the first time…. Kanneh-Mason started playing cello at 6 years old…. His musical influences include Bob Marley [and his] long list of musical accomplishments … include winning the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition in 2016…. [LPO Music Director] Carlos Miguel Prieto … ‘is a huge admirer … and wanted to bring [him] here for a while,’ … said Kerry Smith, LPO’s director of artistic programming. The Jan. 11 concert also included … the premiere of a newly commissioned work by Andrea Reinkemeyer, Water Sings Fire…. Reinkemeyer attended the concert and gave a talk about the piece with Prieto beforehand.”
Andrea Reinkemeyer’s Water Sings Fire was commissioned in 2017 by the League of American Orchestras’ Women Composers Readings and Commissions program and received its world premiere by the Louisiana Philharmonic in January 2019. The program is administered with American Composers Orchestra and supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation. Click here for more on the League’s Women Composers Readings and Commissions program.
Posted January 18, 2019
