Sheku Kanneh-Mason in the spotlight at the Lucerne Festival

Sheku Kanneh-Mason begins his residency at the Lucerne Festival this week in the first of four performances as ‘artiste étoile’ of the 2024 Summer Festival. In this interview, the British cellist discusses his life and career with Lucerne Festival’s Intendant Michael Haefliger, with a focus on his upcoming Lucerne programmes. Kanneh-Mason was still in his teens when he made his Lucerne Festival debut in 2018.

They begin with a look back at what it was like growing up in an artistic family with six siblings and talk about some of Kanneh-Mason’s early inspirations. The cellist also shares his thoughts on the two concertos in which he will appear as the soloist: the Dvořák, which will launch his Lucerne residency on 23 August (with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra led by Jakub Hrůša), and, to close it, Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto on 11 September with Paavo Järvi and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich. Both of these concerts will take place in the festival’s main concert venue, the KKL.

The residency will spotlight the wide range of Kanneh-Mason’s artistry and musical interests. He describes how he met and became friends with the Brazilian guitarist Plínio Fernandes while they were students at the Royal Academy of Music. They will give a duo concert on 24 August at the Luzerner Theater.

‘I think cello and guitar is a very special combination, not one that you hear very often, and it doesn’t have a massive repertoire’, says Kanneh-Mason. ‘So we’ve spent a lot of time commissioning composers to write for this combination and arranging some music as well – a lot of which you’ll hear on the programme’ (including a new sonata for cello and guitar they commissioned from Leo Brouwer).

For a second chamber concert, on 31 August, Kanneh-Mason will be joined by  pianist Harry Baker, another friend he made as a student. They’ve teamed up over the years to share their respective passions for classical and jazz idioms and will perform a special programme in the Lukaskirche exploring the vast spectrum of J.S. Bach’s influence (‘Bach & Beyond’).

‘I think the concert with Harry will be a very intimate experience. As soon as improvisation is involved, it feels very intimate, because the creation aspect of the music is happening there and then. And so there’s a wonderful feeling of focus and connection with the audience’.