The Power of Creativity & Inclusivity
Dr. Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason
Closing Speaker
Session 6 16:00
Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason is a former lecturer in English at Birmingham University. She completed a PhD and was Lecturer in English at The University of Sussex before moving to Birmingham University. Her book, ‘African Identities: Race, Nation and Culture in Ethnography, Pan- Africanism and Black Literatures’ was published in 1998. In 2020, she published House of Music: Raising the Kanneh-Masons.
Kadiatu has seven children, all of whom are classical musicians: professional classical musicians, students at The Royal Academy of Music or The Royal College of Music, or members of the Junior and Primary Royal Academy of Music. Three of her children were BBC Young Musician Category Finalists, with Sheku, her third child winning the competition in 2016. In 2018, Sheku was cello soloist at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, and both Isata and Sheku have recorded successful albums on the Decca Classics label. The seven
Kanneh-Masons launched their album, Carnival, in 2020. The family has been the subject of several documentaries, including the BBC Four documentary, Young Gifted and Classical: The Making of a Maestro, and the BBC One documentary, Imagine: This House is Full of Music.
Kadiatu is on the Board of Trustees for ESTA String Teachers Association, The Nottingham Education Trust, Real Talk TV and Music Masters, and she is continuing to write and gives talks, interviews and lectures around the U.K. on diversity in classical music, music education, issues of race and inclusion, literature and parenting.