Kanneh-Mason family to perform in Christmas Day programme
Hattie Fisk
Tuesday, December 21, 2021
All seven brothers and sisters, aged between 12 and 25, are set to perform festive classical songs on BBC Two this Christmas.
Courtesy BBC Two
A Musical Family Christmas with the Kanneh-Masons is to be broadcast at 8.35pm on 25 December 2021.
The hour-long show will feature performances from the whole Kanneh-Mason family, with some of the seven siblings returning to their family home in Nottingham after tours of the USA and Europe.
Songs include festive tracks such as Mary’s Boy Child, We Three Kings, Santa Baby, Sugar Plum Fairy and In The Bleak Midwinter, as well as versions of Bob Marley’s Who The Cat Fit, Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah and Eric Whitacre’s The Seal Lullaby.
Footage taken by parents Kadiatu and Stuart at previous family Christmases will be shown throughout the show, including home movies of the children playing musical instruments across the years.
The family released their first album Carnival in October 2020 to great critical acclaim, and in May 2021 they they received the Global Award for Best Classical Artist.
Sheku Kanneh-Mason was the first black musician to win the BBC Young Musician competition in 2016, and has since shot to fame; he published The Sheku Kanneh-Mason Cello Collection with Faber Music this year.
Watch the show on Christmas Day on BBC Two. Find out more about the programme here.
