On the 6 August 2024, acclaimed pianist Isata Kanneh Mason made her highly anticipated Stern Auditorium debut at Carnegie Hall with Iván Fischer and the European Union Youth Orchestra, playing Dohnányi’s Variations on a Nursery Tune, followed by a glorious encore of Gershwin’s The Man I Love. The concert formed part of Carnegie Hall’s new summer concert festival, World Orchestra Week, celebrating outstanding youth ensembles from around the world.
Isata’s riveting performance received wide admiration:
“It was equally the springboard for pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason’s dazzling performance. The entire piece, outside of the orchestral ritornellos, was a cadenza for piano, and Ms. Kanneh‑Mason was a master of her keyboard. Not only whizzing up and down the scale with electrifying pace, but giving it a legato velvety touch. The work is difficult enough, but to give it (transposing Governor Walz’ words) the “Pianism of joy” is almost impossible. But she did it.
This work deserved an encore. Her version of The Man I Love was less Earl Wild-style technical brilliance as a tribute to a melody which Schubert himself would have envied.” – Harry Rolnick, ConcertoNet.com
“Isata Kanneh-Mason made for a stylish soloist, introducing the familiar theme of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star with the right amount of impish wit, and maintaining a sense of genuine invention throughout the twelve variations. The orchestra occasionally covered her in passages that underscore the hard-charging contrast of the accompaniment, but the overall quality of her sound was as assertive as it was lyrical.” – Cameron Kelsall, Bachtrack
“Kanneh-Mason proved masterful, handling the keyboard fireworks with playful elan and a bright, springy sound. At times the EUYO players were overly loud, but in general Fischer led them in a solid and entertaining performance. Kanneh-Mason further delighted the audience in her encore, a bluesy rendition of George Gershwin’s song The Man I Love.” – Arlo McKinnon, New York Classical Review
Stream Isata’s performance of Dohnányi’s Variations on WQXR FM.
Isata recorded Dohnányi’s Variations with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Domingo Hindoyan as part of her album Childhood Tales, released by Decca Classics in May 2023.
She will return to the Stern Auditorium stage with her brother Sheku Kanneh-Mason in December 2024, with a programme featuring the works of Fauré, Poulenc, and Mendelssohn, as well as the New York premiere of Natalie Klouda’s Tor Mordôn.
In high demand from concert halls and orchestras worldwide, highlights of the 2024/25 season include Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto at the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie’s FREISPIEL festival and at the Ulster Orchestra’s season opening concert; and Prokofiev’s Third Concerto with the Chineke! Orchestra on tour at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, the Berliner Philharmonie, Brussels’s BOZAR and London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall. Solo recital appearances include the Lucerne Festival, Piano aux Jacobins Toulouse, the Schumann-Haus Düsseldorf, PHIL Haarlem, and on tour across the USA. In concerto performance, Isata appears with the London, Bergen, Bremen, and Duisburg philharmonics, the North Carolina Symphony, and on tour with the Staatskapelle Weimar, and the Residentie Orkest.
Isata Kanneh-Mason is managed in association with Enticott Music Management.
Photo: Karolina Wielocha
