“Sheku Kanneh-Mason, the award-winning cellist who rose to prominence after performing at Harry and Meghan’s wedding, has called for greater investment in early-stage music education to tackle a lack of diversity in classical music,” writes Polly Bindman in Tuesday’s (1/21) Guardian (U.K.). “The 20-year-old musician, who played to a global audience of 1.9 billion at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, [says], ‘I’ve benefited from having so much music education.… And the thought that lots of people won’t have something even close to that same level is a real shame. Diversity needs to start way, way before people are auditioning. If actual education is not invested in and supported, then nothing will change.’ The 2016 winner of the BBC Young Musician Award, and the first black musician to win the competition, credits a robust musical education as well as supportive parents for his success…. Kanneh-Mason is an ambassador for London Music Masters, a charity that offers musical support to state primary school children in London….He regularly visits schools to perform with young musicians. He … is the third of seven siblings, all of whom are skilled classical musicians.”
Daniel Harding’s yearlong conducting sabbatical—in an airplane cockpit
