JENEBA KANNEH-MASON
ASSEMBLY HALL, WORTHING
Sunday, 4 February 2024
2:45 pm
Conductor: JOHN GIBBONS
Leader: JULIAN LEAPER
Dvorak - Czech Suite
Mozart - Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major
Dina Appeldoorn - Pastorale
Mendelssohn - Italian symphony
One of the hugely talented Kanneh-Mason family, Jeneba Kanneh-Mason returns to play what is arguably Mozart’s most popular Piano Concerto (No. 23) with its intensely beautiful F# minor slow movement and outer movements that glow with a sense of contentment and seemingly endless lyricism.
Dvorak’s sunny Czech Suite perfectly incorporates exuberant folk melodies alongside the bucolic sounds of the countryside to produce wonderful foot-tapping dances.
Dina Appeldorm was a romantic Dutch composer who worked as a piano teacher and accompanist. She composed works across many genres, especially songs. Her Pastorale of 1934 is a evocative work for chamber orchestra.
Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony is a brilliant evocation of the sights and sounds of the Italy he experienced on a two year trip around the country in the 1830s. The work glows with warmth and radiates joie de vivre, especially in the exuberantly whirling ‘saltarello’ ffinale.
JENEBA KANNEH-MASON
Pianist Jeneba Kanneh-Mason is already captivating audiences with her “maturity in performance and interpretation” (Fraser). She recently made her BBC Proms debut performing the Florence Price Concerto and was heralded by the press as “demonstrating musical insight, technical acuity, and an engaging performing persona” (Music OMH). The piece was recorded with Chineke! and Leslie Suganandarajah, and released on Decca Classics in Summer 2023. The Guardian hailed her performance, stating that ‘Price could have no more persuasive an advocate’.
Jeneba starts her 23/24 season with a recital at London’s Bold Tendencies, where she presents a programme based on the theme ‘CRISIS’. An avid recital performer, Jeneba has performed in venues such as the Zurich Tonhalle, London Wigmore Hall, Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields, amongst others, as well as the Lenzburgiade, Rheingau, Cheltenham, Bradfield and Lamberhurst festivals.
Other recent and forthcoming highlights include an extensive UK tour with the Hungarian Radio Symphony and Riccardo Frizza, a European tour with Chineke!, debuts with the Detroit Symphony, Philharmonia, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, Belgrade Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, and the Sinfonia Viva for the New Year Gala. She also recorded Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 6 with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and Howard Griffiths, which was released on Alpha.
Jeneba was a Keyboard Category Finalist in BBC Young Musician 2018, winner of the Murs du Son Prize at the Lagny-Sur-Marne International Piano Competition in France, 2014, and The Nottingham Young Musician 2013. She was also winner of the Iris Dyer Piano Prize at The Royal Academy of Music, Junior Academy, where she studied with Patsy Toh.
Jeneba was named one of Classic FM’s ‘Rising Stars’ and appeared on Julian Lloyd Webber’s radio series in 2021. She has also been featured on several television and radio programmes, including Radio 3, In Tune, The BAFTAs, The Royal Variety Performance, the documentary for BBC4, Young, Gifted and Classical, and the Imagine documentary for BBC1, This House is Full of Music. She has recorded for the album, Carnival, with Decca Classics.
Jeneba holds the Victoria Robey Scholarship to The Royal College of Music, studying piano with Vanessa Latarche. She is grateful to Lady Robey, The Nottingham Soroptimist Trust and to The Nottingham Education Trust.
