Sheku Kanneh-Mason rehearses Saint-Saëns’s Cello Concerto No. 1 with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for a concert a few months ago. Photo by Greg Kahn
“A few months ago … Sheku Kanneh-Mason finished playing Saint-Saëns’s Cello Concerto No. 1 with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra,” writes Zachary Woolfe in Thursday’s (6/4) New York Times. “The British cellist … who turned 21 on April 4, walked offstage to a loud ovation…. When he emerged [for an encore], the audience greeted him with a roar. Marin Alsop, the Baltimore Symphony’s longtime conductor, smiled as she watched from backstage. ‘It’s good,’ she said. ‘We need another star.’ … But if Mr. Kanneh-Mason continues to rise … he will be more than just another star…. ‘The arena is still devoid of stars of color,’ said Afa S. Dworkin, the president of the Sphinx Organization [a U.S. nonprofit that works to increase diversity in classical music]…. He won a prestigious competition, the BBC Young Musician of the Year, in 2016 [and] played at Prince Harry’s 2018 wedding to Meghan Markle. It was watched on television by an audience of nearly 2 billion—including many young people of color who have swiftly taken Mr. Kanneh-Mason as a model…. This is what Ms. Dworkin calls ‘the Sheku effect.’ A new generation of musicians are saying, ‘That will be me,’ ” she said.”
