Sibling Sensations at UCSB

Duos continue to be de rigueur this week, as Britain’s brother-sister breakout stars Sheku Kanneh-Mason and Isata Kanneh-Mason follow Jennifer Koh and Davóne Tines’ April 12 world-premiere presentation of Everything Rises at Campbell Hall, with a concert of their own at Campbell on Tuesday, April 19. Cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason first gained renown as winner of the 2016 BBC Young Musician competition, becoming the first Black musician to take the title, and a scant two years later found stardom after his performance at the 2018 wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex who, of course, are now non-royal residents of Montecito. In 2020, he was appointed a member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire and became the first cellist in history to hit the U.K. Top 10 chart. His sister Isata Kanneh-Mason is no slouch herself as the pianist is the recipient of a 2021 Leonard Bernstein Award and a 2020 Opus Klassik award for best young artist. The sibling duo will perform Bridge’s “Sonata in D minor, H. 125,” Britten’s “Cello Sonata, op. 65,” Karen Khachaturian’s “Cello Sonata,” and Shostakovich’s “Sonata in D minor, op. 40.”