She enters the room with an outstretched arm and a smile like a millennial beacon. Chic, dressed with understated elegance, Isata Kanneh-Mason has that indefinable, unteachable quality: charisma. The kind that lights up a room. The kind of person, famous or not, who you pass on the street and do a double take. We are meeting in the offices of her record company – Decca – in an achingly trendy complex between King’s Cross and St Pancras stations. A decade ago it was one of the seediest parts of London, the haunt of kerb-crawlers and ladies of the night. Nowadays it’s buzzing with energy, café life, youth and aspiration. A world that Isata inhabits. (And, by the way, it’s pronounced Eye-sa-ta – like the first three notes of Chopin’s A major Polonaise – not I-sar-ta or Ees-a-ta.)

In case you are visiting from another planet, she was born on 27 May 1996 in Nottingham, UK, the eldest of seven siblings, all of whom share exceptional musical talents: Braimah (25) plays the violin, Sheku (24) plays the cello, Konya (22) and Aminata (17) play both violin and piano, while Jeneba (20) and Mariatu (13) play both cello and piano. Their remarkable parents met at Southampton University. On the surface, it was an unlikely match – her mother Kadiatu, born in Sierra Leone and raised in Wales, was reading English; her father, Stuart, of Antiguan heritage and born in London, was reading maths and physics. She became a university lecturer; he works for a luxury experiential travel company. They must still be rubbing their eyes in disbelief at the success of their offspring. Did they ever manage to have a night off from their seven children all pounding and scraping away on their instruments? ‘Oh, they definitely made time for themselves,’ says Isata, ‘and packed us off to our grandparents, but obviously it was a huge sacrifice business. They were definitely tired for at least 10 years! But there’s only one child left at home now – well, actually two, but one is going to drama school in September.’

Isata Kanneh-Mason (Karolina Wielocha)

The family unit, togetherness and mutual support are key to the story. I interviewed Isata and Sheku via Zoom a few years ago, the morning after their Antiguan grandfather had died. They could easily have cancelled but, though saddened and subdued, they kept the appointment despite their great loss. I have never met Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason but from the many television and documentary appearances, I get the strong impression that Isata is very much her mother’s daughter: demure, poised and serene but with a core inner belief and iron self-discipline, someone who very much has a mind of her own. As the eldest sibling, you can tell by the way she expresses herself that she is used to caring for others, giving advice and being, well, the patient and understanding big sister. I can’t imagine her raising her voice. I think she dislikes confrontation.

One of the remarkable things about Isata Kanneh-Mason and her discography thus far is that she thinks outside the box. She doesn’t go down a traditional repertoire route for recordings. And it is her latest recording that we are here to talk about. Its theme is music by Mendelssohn – both Felix and Fanny – but not the usual predictable sequence of Songs without Words and Variations sérieuses. Her previous album, ‘Childhood Tales’, programmed solo works with one for piano and orchestra. (Why don’t more artists mix genres like this?) Then it was Mozart’s variations on Ah, je vous dirai-je Maman (aka ‘Twinkle, twinkle, little star’) coupled with Dohnányi’s Variations on a Nursery Song, based on the same theme. The new album has Mendelssohn’s G minor Concerto, a work that many gifted young pianists learn early on. Not Isata. ‘I first played it in 2021 and I’ve only performed it a few times. For a good two years I didn’t play it at all. When I was very young I played Haydn’s D major Concerto, not the Mendelssohn. But I didn’t consciously think “oh, this is a concerto with solo stuff”.’

It just so happens that I heard Isata play the Mozart Variations in a recital at Saffron Hall a few years ago – beautifully, sparklingly executed – which she followed with the work that ends the new album: Fanny Mendelssohn’s Easter Sonata. Composed in 1829, it was lost for 150 years and only unearthed in France in 1970 – it was given its first recording two years later by Éric Heidsieck, billed as being by Felix. It was in 2010 that the work was finally shown to be in Fanny’s hand. Two years after that, it received its first recording under her name. The Sonata, in four movements, depicts the Passion of Christ, hence its Ostersonate title. How did Isata come across the work?

‘It was a woman called Sheila Hayman, who was making a documentary about Fanny Mendelssohn.’ Hayman is a distinguished and award-winning film-maker. Her 2010 BBC film Mendelssohn, the Nazis and Me was nominated for the Grierson Award as Best Arts Documentary. Its literal sibling, Fanny: The Other Mendelssohn was completed in 2023. Hayman also happens to be Fanny’s great-great-great granddaughter. ‘She approached me,’ continues Kanneh-Mason, ‘and asked if I would learn this piece and participate in the documentary. And then I listened to it and said yeah, I like it so … I knew of Fanny Mendelssohn, but I didn’t know much of her music. The whole Sonata is about 20 minutes long. I think of it as a short work with a lot packed in. I was still getting to know it when you heard it [at Saffron Hall]. I performed it a lot but felt awkward about it for a long time. Then I recorded it, but I didn’t like the recording. Luckily this was way in advance of the album’s release, so I asked if I could re-record the Easter Sonata while I was in the studio, along with the other solo works I’d planned. By then I felt like it was in me and I could enjoy it more. The Decca people were very good and agreed that I could re-record it.’

It’s nice to know there are still labels that support artists in this way. Does she know what her sales figures are? ‘No,’ she laughs, ‘I’ve never followed that. Never. I don’t track public things like that. It’s not useful for me. I never read reviews. I never follow myself online. I just don’t look at it. I have my own Instagram which I look at for my friends, but I won’t fully delve into social media. I’ll just occasionally check in on what my friends are doing, send them a little “like” and then disappear again. People get very addicted; they get very lonely and it feels like it fills that void – even if it’s not the best way. Sometimes it’s hard to get past that.’

Is she a good sight-reader? ‘I am usually,’ she replies cautiously. Usually? ‘Well, I don’t want to say I’m good because then you’re going to test me! Actually, I used to be really bad at sight-reading when I was about 10. I think I probably did really badly in one of my grade exams and my mum was like “right, you have to practise your sight-reading”, and then I did it loads and I got good at it. So I would say I am good now because I’ve done it a lot – especially with chamber music. That’s probably the easiest for me to do.’ Naturally, she has had far greater opportunities to play chamber music than the average pianist, having a built-in family unit for trios, quartets and the like. ‘Yes, but I also have often been to music courses where sight reading is part of the culture – like a fun thing you do after dinner.’

The conversation had drifted slightly off piste but there was another aspect of her professional life that intrigued me. I suspected, so far as social media is concerned, that the Kanneh-Mason family, especially the three older children, all of whom have achieved a high level of success and visibility very quickly and very young, must have endured a lot of abuse from the trolls and other scum that inhabit social media. They have had to educate themselves on how to handle it. ‘Hmm,’ she nods sagely. ‘It also helps that we have each other and that we have very strong relationships around us – friends, support systems, family – and I think that keeps us grounded above all else. That’s what I focus on. Having that means that I don’t really need to be online so much because my offline life is very strong.’ She also makes sure that she and her siblings meet up as often as possible. ‘We have similar friendship groups, so we end up just socialising at the same places.’

With a busy schedule of engagements and new repertoire to master, I wonder who mentors her when she is learning a new piece like the Easter Sonata. Who will advise her on pacing and phrasing, or offer an objective view on what she is doing with the music? ‘I go to a teacher called Alasdair Beatson about once a month who lives near Oxford. Occasionally I just get advice from other musicians as well and then I’ll play to friends and family. Alasdair goes into lots of detail. He’s very big on the harmony, about the tone that we need for every note, and the pedalling and the phrasing. I mean there’s just so much you can get from every bar and we just really go into detail on that.’

What else is on the Mendelssohn album? One of the most difficult Rachmaninov transcriptions – the Scherzo from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. ‘I really like the piece, actually. It’s so playful and exciting. It fizzes! I didn’t choose it because it was difficult – when I first heard it I didn’t think of it as difficult. It was just exciting. Difficulty is all about time. If something’s difficult it just takes a bit longer to get in your fingers.’ She had not heard the famous story of Benno Moiseiwitsch in 1939 recording the Scherzo as a last-minute fill-up at the end of a session and dispatching it perfectly in a single take. ‘Wow. That’s amazing. I certainly didn’t do it in one take!’

There is a second transcription on the album from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, that of the Nocturne, an arrangement by Moritz Moszkowski that few of even the most knowledgeable transcription junkies will have heard. How did she come across it? ‘It was Dominic Fyfe [the Label Director of Decca Classics] – he’s very good at finding things. He sends me things to listen to and of the things he sent me, I just thought this one was very beautiful.’

I wonder if Isata knows Moszkowski’s transcription of the Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde (in my opinion, superior to Liszt’s famous arrangement). No. Did she know Liszt’s version? No. That was a surprise. She seems to have no broad knowledge of piano literature but assimilates it piecemeal. ‘I guess there are certain pockets of the repertoire I know about, but I guess I’ve been alive for 28 years and I have so many interests in music and there are only so many hours in the day.’ What does she do when she’s not playing the piano? ‘I do a lot of active things. I like running and pilates. I like reading – I read lots of books. I go on long walks. And I like to be with people because I’m often on my own, travelling by myself. That’s when I read or listen to things. But when I’m in London, I have quite a big social life because I’m very much a people person. So books are my company when I’m alone – no particular genre, any more than I like one particular genre of music.’

Is there any genre of music that she doesn’t like? ‘Screamers,’ she retorts. Her interlocutor is baffled. ‘Screamers. Like heavy metal. But even that I listened to when I was about 15.’ Any classical composer she doesn’t care for? ‘There’s no single composer who I wholly dislike. But I can listen to a single piece and think “Nah”. I’m not a fan of Wagner. I haven’t got into him yet. I’ve heard a lot of music of all different kinds in my life. I’ve had many teachers, a long musical education. We all have a certain amount of time and we have to decide what we want to invest in. Therefore, we all have gaps and we all have pockets that we know. You’ve highlighted some of my gaps and I’m always discovering.’

Isata’s first piano teacher was a lady named Patsy Toh at the Junior Academy of the RAM. Toh also taught Isata’s younger sister Jeneba, and I’ve read what an important figure she has been in both their lives. I was keen to hear more about her. ‘She taught me from the age of nine to 18 and once a year I will still go back and play to her. She’s been a huge musical inspiration for me; she shaped the bulk of my development and is still a dear friend. She taught me all the basics and more complex things as well, from how to play, how to move my fingers, how to understand basic phrasing and basic harmony, and the bulk of the core piano repertoire that you need to know. Things that I would now consider my musical instinct that at one point were maybe not that instinctive. She was always saying “Round off, round off!” because when you’re 10 you just go through the phrase like that and she’d say “Round off”. And now I just naturally know how to phrase.’

There comes a point in every budding soloist’s training when someone tells the parent or guardian that their child has a special talent and is good enough to make a career from playing the piano. In Isata’s case, it was a Saturday when her parents were waiting in the canteen for her. ‘Patsy Toh brought me down and she said “Yes, you know she’s very talented but she has to practise”. She would never just say “You’re talented. You’re better. Sit on that”. Talent doesn’t really get you very far, to be honest. Talent is mainly an interest, a passion, a curiosity about music. But the work is 95 per cent. So that’s what she said.’

What does she think her best attributes are as a pianist? She thinks carefully before replying. ‘I think … as a performer, I’m good at connecting with the audience. I think I can be brave on stage. I value the connection that the music can make. Clarity of expression. I always have to know exactly what I’m saying with every piece. I think I value that above all else. I like to take risks. But I could take more. I’m always trying to take more.’

Currently, she is planning her repertoire two to three years ahead. ‘Solo-wise I am going to do two chaconnes. The Chaconne by Sofia Gubaidulina and the Chaconne by Carl Nielsen, side by side. Then [Ravel’s] Gaspard de la nuit and a couple of Beethoven sonatas; I’m going to learn “Rach Three” and Beethoven Four, and at some point I want to do the Barber and Gershwin concertos.’ Have they ever appeared together on record? ‘I don’t know. I’d love to be the first!’

One of Isata’s missions is to play music by under-represented or forgotten composers, be they female, black, Asian or whatever – and for whatever reason have become sidelined. ‘I don’t see it as solely my mission but I see it as something that’s an important part of my musical expression, and I’ve discovered so many wonderful pieces of music that I love that just happen to be by women or black composers. They may be under-represented but if they were terrible pieces of music I probably wouldn’t play them. So it’s a combination.’

Isata Kanneh-Mason is the first female classical pianist of her heritage to have made it on an international stage. She is a trailblazer, a role model and for many years, one hopes, will be a superb ambassador for her country and its musical life – a great burden to bear on such slender shoulders. But then she is a Kanneh-Mason and anything is possible. 

This article originally appeared in the Autumn 2024 issue of International Piano. Never miss an issue – subscribe today