Family dynasties in classical music include names like Bach and Strauss, but a more modern one has arrived: Kanneh-Mason.
No less than seven siblings make up this musical family from England, with 24-year-old Jeneba well into her career as an acclaimed concert pianist. She makes her first-ever appearance with The Florida Orchestra on Oct. 16 and 17 in a Hough Family Foundation Masterworks program featuring Florence Price’s Piano Concerto in One Movement.
The four sisters and two brothers are classically trained and forging individual careers. Along with Jeneba, the clan includes Isata (piano), Konya (piano and violin), Aminata (violin and piano), Mariatu (cello and piano); Braimah (violin) and Sheku (cello). Their ages range from 30 to 17.
“Growing up with a musical family means there’s a constant musical community to fall back on,” Jeneba said. “The benefits are endless in having my siblings to talk through the situations that we all experience as musicians, although we do find time to talk about other things as well.”
Millions of people first heard of the family on a 2025 edition of the “60 Minutes” television program, which billed the family as “one of the most improbable stories in classical music history.” While most of them enjoy solo careers, they frequently perform together in various combos, expressing their ideas as both artists and a tightly knit family.
“A lot of the way we communicate is through music itself,” Jeneba said. “We play together regularly and that keeps us close.”
She shared a similar thought during the “60 Minutes” session: “There’s a speed at the way we interact, and I think that kind of unspoken communication is very quick because of how close we are, because we would listen to each other playing around the house.”
The siblings grew up in Nottingham in the Midlands region of central England. Their parents are Stuart Mason, a travel company executive and native of England, and Kadiatu Kanneh, a former university teacher born in Sierra Leone. They both played musical instruments as a hobby and filled the house with sound. They didn’t follow a strict master plan for their kids but nurtured their after-school creative interests.
Kadiatu told the family’s story in her 2020 memoir “House of Music: Raising the Kanneh-Masons” as well as her 2025 book, “To Be Young, Gifted and Black.” She describes how the children went to public rather than private schools in Nottingham, where they received a standard education — and encountered class divisions and racism. The parents encouraged them to be tolerant, empathetic and resilient.
Jeneba, who began playing piano at age 3, realized her potential early on. Exposed to YouTube videos of famous pianists, she envisioned the keyboard as an orchestra of unlimited expression. At age 9, she attended the Royal Academy of Music Junior Academy; later she did her graduate studies at the Royal College of Music in London. She made her public debut in 2021 at the BBC Proms and soon signed a contract with the Sony Classical record label.
It was during her Proms performance of Ravel’s Concerto in G Major that the 19-year-old realized something special was happening.
“I was so very nervous the day before, and when I went on stage, I felt totally connected and excited about playing the piece,’’ she told Interlude online magazine. “My nerves vanished and I just knew I could do it.’’
Jeneba is well-versed in the traditional piano repertoire, often performing Chopin, Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, Debussy and Liszt. She also programs works by Black and American composers such as William Grant Still, Margaret Bonds and Price.
Price commands attention because her music was nearly forgotten until 2009, a half-century after her death, when a couple bought an abandoned home in St. Anne, Illinois, where Price once spent her summers. They found a bundle of manuscripts, books and diaries hidden away, including original scores for her Fourth Symphony, two violin concertos and parts of the Piano Concerto on this program. The discovery sparked a resurgence of interest and a scholarly evaluation of Price’s legacy, followed by publication and performances of the missing scores. Her works are now considered an essential part of American music from the 1930s.
“It’s exciting to see how much her music has been welcomed into concert halls and into solo and concerto repertoire,” Jeneba said. “It’s a shame we haven’t had it for 75 years, but it’s wonderful to see how much joy people are getting from her music now that she’s being heard more regularly.”
Jeneba knows that most Florida Orchestra patrons will be hearing Price for the first time, and that her performances here will be like opening a time capsule. Revitalizing a nearly forgotten work also has inspired her to study other, less-known music from that era.
“I fell in love with the concerto and have had many opportunities to perform it,” she said. “My discovery of Price’s music has led me to be so much more interested in other women composers working at that time. I think that curiosity is essential for this industry, and Price has been a catalyst for the expansion of my repertoire.”
Kurt Loft is a journalist and arts writer who has covered classical music for the Tampa Tribune and other publications for 45 years. A member of the Music Critics Association of North America, he lives in St. Petersburg.