A MUSICIAN who performed at the Duke and Duchess’s wedding has been awarded an MBE at the age of 22.
Cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason has described being made an MBE for services to music as “very, very special”.
The 22-year-old performed three pieces of music at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding at Windsor Castle in May 2018.
The performances, which included a rendition of Ave Maria, is believed to have been viewed by more than two billion people around the world.
Kanneh-Mason, who became the first black BBC Young Musician in 2016, was joined by his father Stuart as he was presented with the award by the Princess Royal on Wednesday.
The musician, who previously revealed he did not feel nervous playing at the royal wedding, has been playing cello since the age of six.
“It feels like a massive honour to collect this,” he said. “It’s very, very exciting to be recognised for doing what I love anyway – it’s very, very special.”
Kanneh-Mason is the third of seven children born to immigrant parents from Antigua and Sierra Leone.
He has performed at the BBC Proms every summer since 2017, including a 2020 performance alongside his sister Isata.
During lockdown, Kanneh-Mason and his siblings also performed virtual livestreams from their family home in Nottingham.
“We just inspire each other and encourage each other, and it was highlighted in the lockdown that we could play together with each other, that was always something I was grateful for growing up,” he said.
“I enjoy sharing music that I have thought about and spent time working on, I enjoy sharing that with the audience, it’s a very exciting experience and thrilling to perform. I just feel very lucky, always, when I’m on stage.
“It has been difficult to not have that audience during the pandemic, so it’s great to have that back. It’s always such a special thing.”
Kanneh-Mason is the highest-charting cellist of all time in the UK, after his 2020 album Elgar, based on Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto, reached number eight in the charts.
He is also the first British classical instrumentalist in more than 30 years to reach the top ten after violinist Nigel Kennedy released Vivaldi’s Four Seasons in 1989, which peaked at number three.
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