The character arc of Sheku Kanneh-Mason
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born on 4 April 1999 in Bahrain and raised in Nottingham, the third of seven children. Between then and now sit a cello begun at six, a Grade 8 pass at nine with the highest marks in the United Kingdom, a scholarship to a junior academy the same year, a television talent show with his siblings in 2015, the BBC Young Musician award won in May 2016, a recording contract signed on a city bus named after him in November 2016, a debut album that outsold every British debut of its year, and a royal wedding on 19 May 2018. The line below draws the story so far, in order.
Tap the line to pluck it. Hover or tap any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of his life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who is Sheku Kanneh-Mason?
A talent show they did not win, then the whole world watching.
He was born in Bahrain and grew up in Nottingham, the third of seven children, to a father who managed hotels and a mother who lectured at a university and later wrote a book about raising them all. He started on the violin, then saw one of his sisters perform at a weekend course for young string players run by a local music charity and switched to the cello at six. At nine he passed the Grade 8 cello examination with the highest marks in the United Kingdom, won a memorial prize for it, and took a scholarship to the junior department of the Royal Academy of Music. He did his A-levels in music, maths and physics.
In 2015 he and his siblings appeared on a television talent show as a family act. They did not win, and he has said plainly what it was good for: getting used to performing in front of a lot of people, with cameras and interviews, so that when he came to the competition that mattered he was not fazed at all. He won the BBC Young Musician award in May 2016, the first black musician to win it since the competition began in 1978, playing a Shostakovich concerto.
What followed happened quickly. He signed a recording contract that November, on board a Nottingham city bus that the local authority had named in his honour. He played with an orchestra founded for black and minority ethnic classical musicians, alongside two of his siblings. In January 2018 he gave three thousand pounds to his old secondary school so ten other pupils could carry on their cello lessons. The following month his first album was reported as the biggest-selling British debut of the year to that point. On 19 May 2018 he played at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, in front of an audience most classical musicians never see in a lifetime. He plays a cello made in 1700.
The moments
Sheku Kanneh-Mason's timeline.
The 1990s
Born in Bahrain
Everyday. Third of seven, in a house where everybody played something.
The 2000s
He switches to cello
Milestone, and it changed his direction. He saw his sister play and changed instruments.
Grade 8 at nine
Milestone, and it changed everything. The highest marks in the country, at nine years old.
The 2010s
A talent show, not won
Setback, and it changed his direction. They did not win it. He used it as practice, which is the whole trick.
Go on the talent show
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: go on with the family, taken, or stay in the concert hall. He won the BBC Young Musician award in May 2016 and said the television experience had stopped him being fazed.
BBC Young Musician
Milestone, and it changed everything. The first in thirty eight years, and he was seventeen.
A contract on a bus
Milestone, and it changed his direction. A record deal signed on a bus with his own name on the front.
Chineke, and the Proms
Milestone. An orchestra built so that a concert hall would stop looking the same.
Ten lessons paid for
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Eighteen years old, and the first thing he did with the money was that.
The biggest British debut
Milestone, and it changed his direction. A cello record, outselling every British debut of the year.
The royal wedding
Milestone, and it changed everything. Nineteen years old, and most of the planet was watching.
The 2020s
A cello from 1700
Milestone. An instrument three hundred years older than he is.
Nottingham still claims him and a bus there still carries his name. What it has set moving is visible in any junior orchestra in Britain: a great many children who had never seen anybody who looked like them holding a cello, and ten of them at his old school who kept their lessons because he paid for them.
Your turn
Every line draws a unique story.
His went out of a talent show and used the losing as practice for the thing that mattered. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.
Sheku Kanneh-Mason: frequently asked questions
What people ask about his line.
What is Sheku Kanneh-Mason's character arc?
When did Sheku Kanneh-Mason start playing the cello?
Was Sheku Kanneh-Mason on Britain's Got Talent?
What did Sheku Kanneh-Mason win in 2016?
Did Sheku Kanneh-Mason play at the royal wedding?
What did Sheku Kanneh-Mason do for his old school?
Where does this timeline of Sheku Kanneh-Mason's life come from?
More character arcs
Lives that rhyme with his.
Sources
- Sheku Kanneh-Mason, English Wikipedia biography, filed under living people.
- BBC Young Musician of the Year records, May 2016.
- BBC reporting on the album Inspiration, February 2018.