MARIATU KANNEH-MASON

Mariatu is seventeen years old and the youngest of the Kanneh-Mason siblings, she attends Trinity Catholic School in Nottingham.  An exciting presence on the concert stage, in June 2026 Neil Fisher of The Times described her as having ‘the forceful tone of a soloist with personality’  and that ‘‘her rich timbre sparked shivers’. She studies cello with Ben Davies, and piano with Fiona Harris at Junior Royal Academy of Music and will be taking auditions for full-time conservatoire study in the Autumn of 2026.  At age 10, she gained Grade 8 distinction on the cello and holds a piano diploma distinction (ARSM).

She has performed with the Kanneh-Masons in a series of concerts around the UK, Europe, Australia, USA, Canada and in Antigua and Barbuda. Also with her siblings, Mariatu performed at The Royal Albert Hall for the 2021 BBC Proms, and for The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall in March 2017, at St Johns Smith Square in 2018, at Cheltenham Literary Festival and the Barbican in 2020. She recently joined her family at the Barbican to perform a concert including Carnival of the Animals with Michael Morpurgo, and played in recital with three of her siblings at Wigmore Hall in June 2026.

Mariatu has appeared on several television and radio programmes with her siblings, including BBC World Service, Al Jazeera TV, Channel 4, BBC 1 The One Show (in 2016 and 2025), Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, and the BBC4 documentary, Young, Gifted and Classical. She has featured, with the Kanneh-Masons, in a documentary for Sunday Morning CBS Television (USA), Royal Variety Performance (ITV), Strictly Come Dancing (BBC1), The BBC Proms (BBC2 and BBC4), and the Imagine documentary for BBC1, This House is Full of Music. Mariatu is featured, with her family, in CBS Sixty Minutes, first aired in December 2025. She acted as co-presenter as part of The Kanneh-Mason Family Takeover series on Classic fm. She has also recorded for the Decca Classics album,Carnival, and on the new family album, River of Music.

Mariatu plays a fine French cello and bow kindly on loan from Beares International Violin Society.