Spend Christmas with the Kanneh-Mason family! Coming home to Nottingham for the festive period, their unique seasonal celebration is a fusion of family traditions from the UK, Sierra Leone and the Caribbean. They perform their favourite festive music such as ‘Mary’s Boy Child’, ‘We Three Kings’, ‘Santa Baby’, ‘Sugar Plum Fairy’ and ‘In The Bleak Midwinter’ plus versions of Bob Marley’s ‘Who The Cap Fit’, Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ and Eric Whitacre’s ‘The Seal Lullaby’.
Christmas is a special time for the Kanneh-Masons. All seven siblings are in demand across the world and often away on tour so time at home together with parents Stuart and Kadiatu is rare. The house is incredibly busy: music is practiced in every room; and the Christmas build-up includes tree decorating, the traditional Secret Santa draw, musical duets, competitive charades and board games, festive food preparations plus impromptu performances with carol singers. Parents Kadiatu and Stuart have captured the family Christmases on video over the years and granted exclusive access to these home movies for this programme. The footage includes funny ‘outtake’ moments of the kids when they were much younger and, more importantly, reveals how music has always played such an important part in their lives.
Looking back at this footage gives Kadiatu and Stuart the opportunity to reflect on each of their seven children, providing further insights into the development of their extraordinary musical talents and exploring how they’ve achieved so much so young in the classical world. With number one classical albums in the USA and the UK, having performed ‘Carnival of the Animals’ as a family at this year’s Proms, and with Royal wedding cellist Sheku recently awarded an MBE, the whole family reflect on their amazing year.