This Cultural Life

Cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason was born in Nottingham in 1999 into a big musical family. He and his six siblings all grew up learning classical instruments and appeared on Britain's Got Talent in 2015. Sheku first made his mark as a solo performer the following year, when he won the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition. In 2018, a global audience of over one billion watched him perform live at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Since then, he has received two classical Brit awards and an MBE for services to music, and performed at the Proms every year since 2017. His book The Power of Music charts his creative journey, while his new album - his fifth release - includes recordings of works by Shostakovich and Britten. Sheku talks to John Wilson about the early influence of his paternal grandfather, a classical music lover who encouraged an appreciation of chamber music, including Schubert's Trout Quintet. He also discusses his cellist heroes, Jacqueline du Pré and Mstislav Rostropovich, and explains how the music of reggae superstar Bob Marley has been an inspiration throughout his life.