Konya Kanneh-Mason is 19 years old and holds The Gilling Family Scholarship at The
Royal Academy of Music, studying piano with Tessa Nicholson. She is winner of
Nottingham Young Musician 2017, and joint winner of the Carlton MVC Music Makers
Award 2018.
Konya studied piano with Sarah Pickering at The Junior Royal Academy of Music. She
achieved Grade 8 Distinction on piano at age 11 and Grade 8 Distinction on violin at age
12 and she is a member of Chineke! Orchestra, playing with them at the re-opening of
Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank 2018.
Konya plays solo and chamber music, particularly with her siblings, and has performed in
concerts around the UK and in the Caribbean, including performances at Marlborough
House to Prince Charles and The Duchess of Cornwall, 2017, and HRH The Duke and
Duchess of Cambridge at The BAFTAs, 2018. In 2020, Konya will perform in Antigua and
Barbuda, the USA, Austria, Australia and Ghana. She has played many solo recitals and
has played concerti including Mozart K414, Shostakovich Piano Concerto No 2,
Schumann Piano Concerto and Mozart’s Triple Piano Concerto No 7 (K242) with two of
her sisters. She will play Beethoven Concerto No 1 with The Orchestra of the Restoration
in 2020. Konya is also a member of the Lyra Piano Trio which performs extensively in the
U.K. With her siblings, Konya has performed on numerous television and radio
programmes, including the BAFTAs, Britain’s Got Talent, The One Show, Born to Shine, Al
Jazeera TV, Channel 4, BBC World Service, BBC2 Classroom Heroes, the BBC4
documentary, Young, Gifted and Classical, and the CBS documentary for Sunday Morning,
USA. Konya has also performed on BBC Radio 3 In Tune on three occasions.
Konya is very grateful to Frank White of Ladystone Violins, the Nottingham Soroptimist
Trust, the Nottingham Education Trust, to Mr and Mrs John Brydon, and to the Gilling family.
Konya Kanneh-Mason (18) Piano and Violin
