„Es ist immer etwas ganz Besonderes, an einem Ort wunderbare Musik mit Musikern und Musikerinnen zu teilen, denen sie wirklich am Herzen liegt, und mit einem Publikum, das offen dafür ist, uns und unsere Beziehung zur Musik kennenzulernen. Ich freue mich sehr auf meine Residency und das Konzerhaus-Publikum!“

Right at the start of the 2024/25 season, we welcome the celebrated young cellist from Great Britain to his residency at Gendarmenmarkt: to open the season on September 6 & 7, he will perform one of the great works for his instrument, Antonín Dvořák's melodious Romantic cello concerto, with the Konzerthausorchester conducted by Joana Mallwitz. On September 8 follows the family concert "Hello Cello", in which Sheku, the Konzerthausorchester and our chief conductor particularly welcome young audiences aged 7 and up.

On November 19, our artist in residence explores music between Bach, Lianne La Havas and Pat Metheny with his friend, jazz pianist Harry Baker, during the “Aus den Fugen" festival.

On January 30, you can listen to Sheku Kanneh-Mason performing chamber music with some of our orchestra members. In the three concerts from January 31 to February 2, he will be playing Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1 as a soloist with the Konzerthausorchester under the baton of Joana Mallwitz.

The portrait evening ‘Sheku Kanneh-Mason's Universe’ on July 10 introduces the young cellist  in more detail under the motto “Music, Family, Football“ - of course, not without live music. From July 11 to 13, he will share the stage with the Konzerthausorchester as a soloist for the third and final time during his residency, when they perform Ernest Bloch's Hebrew Rhapsody ‘Schelomo’ under the direction of Michael Sanderling.

"It's always very special to share wonderful music in a place with musicians who really care about it and with an audience that is open to getting to know us and our relationship to music. I'm really looking forward to my residency and the Konzerhaus audience!"

Cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason’s career and performances span the globe. Whether performing for children in a school hall, at an underground club or in the world’s leading concert venues as a soloist with orchestras like Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris or Royal Philharmonic, Sheku’s mission is to make music accessible to all. Besides his career as a cello soloist, he has repeatedly toured Europe and Asia with his pianist sister Isata. Since his debut in 2017, he has performed every summer at the BBC Proms. Sheku’s 2020 album Elgar reached No. 8 in the overall Official UK Album Chart, making him the first ever cellist to reach the UK Top 10. 

He is a graduate of London’s Royal Academy of Music where he studied with Hannah Roberts, and in May 2022, was appointed as the Academy’s first Menuhin Visiting Professor of Performance Mentoring. He is an ambassador for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Future Talent, and Music Masters. Sheku was appointed a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2020 New Year’s Honours List. He plays a Matteo Goffriller cello from 1700 which is on indefinite loan to him.