Cellist who played Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding is coming to Philly for 2019-20 PCMS season

The 19-year-old is slated to play at the Kimmel Center in December with his pianist sister Isata, with whom he has appeared on "Britain's Got Talent."

Cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason will make his Philadelphia debut in December with a Philadelphia Chamber Music Society recital.Read moreLars Borges

by Peter Dobrin

Published Feb. 27, 2019, 5:00 a.m. ET

Sheku Kanneh-Mason, the cellist who rose to fame after playing at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, will perform in Philadelphia under the banner of the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society.

Kanneh-Mason, 19, is slated for a recital at the Perelman Theater Dec. 17 with one of his sisters, pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason, in a program of Beethoven, Barber, Lutoslawski, and Rachmaninoff. The British cellist won the 2016 BBC Young Musician of the Year award, appeared with his siblings on Britain’s Got Talent, and was among the musicians to play at the May 2018 royal wedding at Windsor Castle.

His appearance is part of PCMS’s string recital series during the 2019-20 season, announced Tuesday. Also scheduled are violinist Pamela Frank and pianist Peter Serkin in a March 3, 2020, all-Bach program.

The vocal series brings tenor Matthew Polenzani with pianist Julius Drake (May 6, 2020) as well as the Tallis Scholars (Dec. 5). Pianist Jeremy Denk takes on Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, BWV 846-869 as part of PCMS’s co-presenting series with the Kimmel Center (May 8, 2020).

Beethoven figures prominently in the season (2020 marks the 250th anniversary of his birth). His piano sonatas will be traversed in a cycle by Rudolf Buchbinder (Feb. 4, 2020), Ingrid Fliter (Feb. 12, 2020), Jonathan Biss (Feb. 18 and March 19, 24, and 30, 2020), and Richard Goode (March 27, 2020).

Mitsuko Uchida leaves the sonatas aside, choosing instead the Bagatelles, Op. 126, and the Diabelli Variations, Op. 120 (April 2, 2020).

Beethoven’s string quartets spill forth in six concerts over three months, played by the Doric (Feb. 7, 2020, which includes the Grosse Fuge, Op. 133), Takács (March 15, 2020), Belcea (March 17 and 18, 2020), and Ebène (April 21 and 22, 2020) quartets.

A fair sprinkling of Beethoven appears elsewhere in the season, including a performance of the Trio in B-flat Major, Op. 97, “The Archduke,” by the Vienna Piano Trio (Feb. 21, 2020).

The 2019-20 season also brings a festival curated by tenor Nicholas Phan. Emerging Voices: Art Song & Social Connection aims to “use art song as a medium for understanding our identity and forging connections with others during times of great social, political, and cultural change,” according to a PCMS project statement.

Using Paris and the 100th anniversary of the Treaty of Versailles as a jumping-off point, the concerts, panel discussions, and one master class Jan. 13-24, 2020, explore folk music, nationalism, and the struggle to produce art in wartime.

The festival features world-premiere commissions from composers Nicolas Bacri, Errollyn Wallen, Iva Bittová, and Nico Muhly.

PCMS venues in 2019-20 include the Perelman Theater, American Philosophical Society, Church of the Holy Trinity, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

Information: pcmsconcerts.org, 215-569-8080.