Page 121 - FULL BOOK Isata Kanneh-Mason Childhood Tales

Connolly Composite: Nick Rutter/ JMEnternational/Getty/y Cheese Scientist/Alamy/David
Myers/ EMI Classics

4. Young people need to see that musicians are relatable

I was lucky growing up. I was surrounded by classical music, and my parents showed
my siblings and I different role models of Black excellence. All of it is for you and all of
it is possible, my parents said. The most fundamental thing is to inspire people from a
young age so they know that that classical music is for everyone. But music is expensive.
There needs to be lessons in schools, and the means of allowing people from all
backgrounds to experience itYoung people need to see that musicians are relatable.
Social media is a great facilitator of that. I do a lot of work in schools: I play and talk
and answer questions. Children see that I’m also a human being – and they could do
what I do. How these events are marketed also seems to me to be crucial. Organisations
need to reach out to different audiences and convince them that all music is for them.
You can have a Black musician playing Beethoven and a white musician playing
Florence Price, both composers are just as accessible and just as appealing. We grew up
playing Bach and Brahms and Schubert and didn’t have any preconceptions that this
wasn’t ‘for us’. The emotion in their music, even though it was written hundreds of
years ago, can be related to.Isata Kanneh-Mason, pianist

‘Children see I’m also a human being – and they could also do what I do’ … Isata Kanneh
Mason. Photograph: Robin Clewley

Working alongside more artists of colour in recent years has been an integral part of my
development as a musician. Diversity can be a loaded term, and it encompasses socio
economic background to sexuality, to gender, race and disability. But essentially it’s just
people.I’d like to get to where society is better reflected throughout the industry –
music is about the human experience and every human should be able to access and
make it. The industry is already doing so much to invite in different communities and
work on stories that impact people today, but there is still a need to engage with
organisations to enable them to find different creators of different backgrounds. So
much of this is down to resource.The changes need to be systemic, backstage as well as
on stage. If you have a greater breadth of people on your board, the work you produce is
going to change. Matthew Kofi Waldren, conductor and co-founder of Your Turn
Collective

5. Rethink the finances to ensure musicians get a fair fee