Cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason’s mission is to make music accessible to all, whether that's performing for children in a school hall, at an underground club, or in the world’s leading concert venues. Highlights of the 25/26 season include the prestigious position as Arist in Residence at the New York Philharmonic, touring with the London Philharmonic, and appearances with the Orchestre de Paris, Orchestra of Santa Cecilia Rome, the Philharmonia Orchestra London, the Auckland Philharmonia, and the Baltimore, Vienna and Sydney symphony orchestras.

Sheku will perform Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with his pianist sister, Isata, and violinist Tai Murray and the Chineke! Orchestra on tour in Europe, and with Isata and their brother, Braimah, as violinist on a North American tour in Detroit, Ottawa, Naples (Florida) and Seattle. Sheku also gives the world première of Edmund Finnis’s Cello Concerto, which was written for him, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Roberto Gonzalez Monjas, with further performances of the work with the Dresden Philharmonic, Melbourne Symphony, and London Symphony orchestras.

Sheku continues his collaboration with Isata for a European duo recital tour in February, taking in Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Berlin, Geneva, Turin, Amsterdam and London’s Wigmore Hall, where later in the 25/26 season Sheku and Isata return to play chamber music with two more of their siblings, Braimah and Jeneba. In North America, the duo will resume their recital tour including Boston, Washington DC, Cleveland and New York’s Lincoln Center. Sheku also returns to Antigua, where he has family connections, as an ambassador for the Antigua and Barbuda Youth Symphony Orchestra.

A Decca Classics recording artist, Sheku released Shostakovich & Britten in May 2025, featuring Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No.2, performed with John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London, alongside the cello sonatas of Shostakovich and Britten, which he recorded with Isata Kanneh-Mason. September 2025 sees the release of the second Kanneh-Mason family album, River of Music, also on Decca Classics. Sheku’s 2022 album, Song, showcased his innately lyrical playing in a wide range of arrangements and collaborations, and his 2020 album Elgar reached No.8 in the overall Official UK Album Chart, making him the first ever cellist to reach the UK Top 10. Sheet music collections of his performance repertoire along with his own arrangements and compositions are published by Faber.

Sheku is a graduate of London’s Royal Academy of Music where he studied with Hannah Roberts and in May 2022 he was appointed as the Academy’s first Menuhin Visiting Professor of Performance Mentoring. In 2024 he accepted the role as patron of UK Music Masters and remains an ambassador for both Breakthrough T1D and Future Talent. Sheku was appointed a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2020 New Year’s Honours List. After winning the BBC Young Musician competition in 2016, Sheku’s performance at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at Windsor Castle in 2018 was watched by two billion people worldwide. He plays a Matteo Goffriller cello from 1700 which is on indefinite loan to him.

Noah is a dynamic young musician hailing from Bendigo, Victoria. He has performed side-by-side with most of Australia’s professional orchestras and also as chamber musician and soloist at the Bendigo Chamber Festival and Port Fairy Spring Festival. He was the Principal Cello of the Australian Youth Orchestra in 2024.   

Having completed three years of study under Howard Penny at the Australian National Academy of Music, he is excited to be taking the next step as Fellow with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 2025 and 2026. Noah is at home in diverse musical contexts; his goal is always to create connection through performance.  

Based in Brisbane, Rio Kawaguchi is studying under Principal Bass of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Phoebe Russell, at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University. In her school years, she studied with the principal bass of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Stuart Thomson.  

A passionate Orchestral musician, she recently performed in Europe as part of the Australian Youth Orchestra’s International tour and has toured regional Queensland with Camerata – Queensland’s Chamber Orchestra as a 2025 Upbeat artist. She has played as Principal bass with the QCGU Orchestra in 2024 and 2025 and has been a dedicated member of the Australian Youth Orchestra since 2019.  

She has performed with many major Australian orchestras, including the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra

Andy Lin is an 18-year-old cellist from Sydney, Australia. He began studying the cello at the age of seven and has most recently studied with Georg Pedersen for the past five years. Andy has also recently received mentorship from distinguished musicians, including Hannah Roberts, professor at the Royal Academy of Music, Julia Lichten, Head of Chamber music at Manhattan School of Music, and Joseph Johnson, former Principal Cellist of Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and professor at The Eastman School of music.

He has been an active participant in the Australian Youth Orchestra since 2023 and has attended the National Music Camp for four consecutive years, and was participant of the 2026 Winter Seasons programme, conducted by the world-renowned Anthony Hermus. Andy has received multiple awards and prizes at eisteddfods throughout Australia. As a lover of chamber music, he has twice been a finalist in the National Strike A Chord Competition, performing with the Frosty Shosty Quartet and 4 Bartolomey in 2024 and 2025.

Andy is currently a student at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and later in September, he will commence a Bachelor of Music degree with scholarship at the New England Conservatory in Boston, where he will study under the renowned cellist Lluis Claret.