Siblings Play and Impress

As British cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason had performed at their royal wedding at historic St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, in 2018 and watched by two billion people globally, it was hoped that Prince Harry and wife Meghan Markle might attend his entertaining concert with his pianist sister, Isata, at UCSB’s Campbell Hall, part of the popular Arts & Lectures program. But the tony twosome were a no-show given they were attending the Invictus Games for disabled veterans in The Hague in the Netherlands.

But they certainly missed a musical treat as BBC Proms veteran Sheku, 23, and Leonard Bernstein Award winner Isata, 25, both students at London’s Royal Academy of Music, performed works by Frank Bridge, Benjamin Britten, Karen Khachaturian, and Dmitri Shostakovich. Sheku, who plays a 1700 Matteo Goffriller cello, was appointed an MBE – Member of the British Empire – in the New Year’s Honors List two years ago. A dynamic duo, indeed…