Isata Kanneh-Mason: Tiny Desk Concert

When it comes to musical dynasties, the Bach family is tough to beat, although today's Kanneh-Mason clan is formidable. The Bachs included some 75 active musicians over a 200-year span, including superstar Johann Sebastian. The Kanneh-Mason household, from England, is just getting started, but boasts seven siblings, each classically trained, with a few having launched major careers, including the eldest, Isata, who brings three of her favorite pieces to our trusty Tiny Desk upright piano.

In her early years, Kanneh-Mason, like many budding pianists, practiced the easier works by Chopin. And, like visiting an old friend, she keeps returning to the so-called poet of the piano, but in this performance she plays the difficult and rambunctious finale to Chopin's Third Piano Sonata. With cascades of chords, rippling arpeggios and romantic sweep, just getting to all of the notes is a major feat.

As a second course, Kanneh-Mason offers contrasting music by Franz Liszt, the ne plus ultra of Romantic era piano virtuosos, whose serene side gets the spotlight in the Consolation No. 3 — dressed in diaphanous curlicues and lacy ornamentation.

Kanneh-Mason closes with an arrangement of "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, a Black British composer who died young in 1912. Coleridge-Taylor holds a special place in the heart of Kanneh-Mason and her family because his father hailed from Sierra Leone, the birthplace of Kanneh-Mason's mother.

"Growing up, I never really saw any Black composers within the classical music field," Kanneh-Mason explains. Now, with her career rising, she's extending their legacy.

SET LIST

• Frédéric Chopin: Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor - IV. Finale   
• Franz Liszt: Consolation No. 3 in D-flat major
• Traditional (arr. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor): "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child"      

MUSICIANS

• Isata Kanneh-Mason: piano

TINY DESK TEAM

• Producer: Tom Huizenga
• Director/Editor: Kara Frame
• Audio Technical Director: Josephine Nyounai
• Host/Series Producer: Bobby Carter
• Videographers: Kara Frame, Joshua Bryant, Wendy Li
• Audio Engineer: Neil Tevault
• Production Assistant: Ashley Pointer
• Photographer: Estefania Mitre
• Tiny Desk Team: Maia Stern, Hazel Cills, Josh Newell
• Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed
• Series Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson
• VP, Visuals and Music: Keith Jenkins