JENEBA KANNEH-MASON
PIANO
ABOUT JENEBA
Pianist Jeneba Kanneh-Mason is already captivating audiences with her “maturity in performance and interpretation […], the former an uncanny phenomenon” (Fraser). The third of the Kanneh-Mason clan to establish herself as a soloist, Jeneba recently made her BBC Proms debut with the Chineke! Orchestra, performing the Florence Price Concerto and was heralded by the press as “demonstrating musical insight, technical acuity, and an engaging performing persona” (Music OMH).
Jeneba was a Keyboard Category Finalist in BBC Young Musician 2018, winner of the Murs du Son Prize at the Lagny-Sur-Marne International Piano Competition in France, 2014, and The Nottingham Young Musician 2013. She was also winner of the Iris Dyer Piano Prize at The Royal Academy of Music, Junior Academy, where she studied with Patsy Toh.
Recent and forthcoming highlights include debuts with the Philharmonia, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, and the Sinfonia Viva for the New Year Gala. She also undertakes an extensive tour with Chineke! across Europe in November 2022 for the Price Concerto, and recorded with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. An avid recital performer, Jeneba will also be making solo debuts at the Zurich Tonhalle, London Wigmore Hall, Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields, amongst others, as well as the Lenzburgiade, Rheingau, Cheltenham, Bradfield and Lamberhurst festivals. In 2022, Jeneba also embarked on tours of Australia, USA, Antigua and Barbuda with the Kanneh-Masons.
Jeneba was named one of Classic FM’s ‘Rising Stars’ and appeared on Julian Lloyd Webber’s radio series in 2021. She has also been featured on several television and radio programmes, including Radio 3, In Tune, The BAFTAs, The Royal Variety Performance, the documentary for BBC4, Young, Gifted and Classical, and the Imagine documentary for BBC1, This House is Full of Music. She has recorded for the album, Carnival, with Decca Classics.
Jeneba holds the Victoria Robey Scholarship to The Royal College of Music, studying piano with Vanessa Latarche. She is grateful to Lady Robey, The Nottingham Soroptimist Trust and to The Nottingham Education Trust.
SEE JENEBA LIVE IN CONCERT
September 2025
The Kanneh-Mason Family – London, UK
October 2025
NEWS
JENEBA KANNEH-MASON’S SOLO DEBUT ALBUM, FANTASIE, OUT NOW ON SONY CLASSICAL
Jeneba Kanneh-Mason has a passion for curating programmes that cross diverse musical landscapes, and on her debut solo album Fantasie, she takes listeners on a journey that explores connections across different composers’ sound worlds – whether they met, influenced...
Jeneba signs to Sony Classical for first recital album, releasing 2025
Sony said: Sony Classical is delighted to announce the exclusive signing of pianist Jeneba Kanneh-Mason, who records her first recital album this year for release in Spring 2025. The 21-year-old British pianist has already impressed critics with her “poetry and...
Jeneba makes her BBC Proms debut!
Performing with Chineke! under the baton of the wonderful Kalena Bovell, Jeneba made her debut at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms 2021 on Tuesday 24th August playing Florence Price's Concerto in One Movement. Barry Millington in London's Evening...
Recent Reviews
STACCATOFY
“Jeneba Kanneh-Mason’s debut solo album, Fantasie, released on March 7, 2025, via Sony Classical, is a compelling introduction to her musical artistry and curatorial vision. At 22, Kanneh-Mason presents a program rich in emotional depth and stylistic diversity, shaping each piece with a profound connection to its inner workings, crafting an immersive and evocative listening experience.” – Adorjan Horvát
BACHTRACK
“Kanneh-Mason approached the work with a striking stage presence and elegance of touch, the rippling opening deliciously fluid, rolling along. …The famous slow movement with its haunting clarinet solo was gorgeously lush, Kanneh-Mason’s piano flowing expansively in a well-measured performance, her deft lightness making the piano sing. The players cooked up a punchy storm in the final movement, Kanneh-Mason sparkling with detail and excitingly bold heft breaking through the orchestral texture in a thrilling finish.” – David Smythe
THE GUARDIAN
“With a deft and expressive soloist in Jeneba Kanneh-Mason, the work seemed to grow beyond the sum of its parts. An impassioned opening section, with a virtuosic cadenza and a soaring melody riding the crest of the orchestra, is the most adventurous. The middle section, drawing lyrically on an African American spiritual, and the jazzy juba-dance finale have less muscle, but joyful charm.” – Fiona Maddocks