The first person who broke my heart was an accomplished cellist. It makes sense: cellos are beautiful, sonorous, sensual, the heart of string quarters, equal parts pure and plaintive. 

So if cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason breaks your heart with his performance presented by the Vancouver Recital Society, don’t say I didn’t warn you. 

For a man born barely before the millennium flipped, Kanneh-Mason has a packed resume. From first appearing on Britain’s Got Talent in 2015 as one of seven musically prodigious siblings, to becoming the first Black musician to win the BBC Young Musician of the Year contest in 2016, Kanneh-Mason’s star has only continued to rise. 

Since then, Kanneh-Mason has performed at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018; become the first cellist to score a UK top 10 album with 2020’s Elgar; and played shows around the world with symphonies and concert orchestras, or simply by himself with his 1700 Matteo Goffriller cello.

He previously came by Rain City in 2017 when he performed to a sold-out house at the Vancouver Playhouse; and again in 2019, when he played at the Orpheum alongside his sister, pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason. 

Much of Kanneh-Mason’s appeal lies in his ability to straddle the classic and the contemporary. His arrangement of Bob Marley’s iconic “No Woman, No Cry” went viral in 2018, the same year TIME named him one of its Next Generation Leaders. His latest album, 2022’s Song, features performances from Bach to Bacharach, spanning folk, pop, and jazz alongside classical heavy-hitters. 

Kanneh-Mason’s heading to The Chan Centre for Performing Arts later this month for the only Canadian stop on his North American tour. His program includes pieces from Britten and Cassadó, culminating in a group performance with local young cellists of Casals’ “Song of the Birds”. 

Just be sure to have your tissues ready.

Sheku Kanneh-Mason

When: October 29, 3pm

Where: Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, 6265 Crescent Road, Vancouver

Admission: From $18, available here