London’s Royal Philharmonic and guest pianist coming to Iowa City

It’s a good thing Isata Kanneh-Mason is a runner, because her fingers are zipping through a 28-minute marathon every time she plays Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto on the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s two-week U.S. tour this month.

The London-based ensemble will play a nearly sold-out concert Jan. 24 at Hancher Auditorium in Iowa City.

Kanneh-Mason, 27, of London, is looking forward to her first U.S. concert tour, even if she may not have time to explore host cities around carving out time to practice and fulfill her concert obligations. And sleep — that’s a major priority as she deals with jet lag and a rigorous schedule on the ground.

She practices up to five hours a day, and still works with a coach every couple of months, she told The Gazette during a recent Zoom interview from her London flat.

Such diligence is key not only to her career, but the advice she gives to budding artists — and it’s the best advice she’s received along her professional path.

“It’s just practice,” she said. “I think sometimes we try to overcomplicate things, but usually if I’ve practiced enough, and I feel on top of things, everything else comes more naturally.”

But it goes beyond that for young people serious about a music career.

“More than practice … you really have to be confident in your own interpretation of the music,” she said. “To be honest, it’s a lot of lessons — have lessons, go to concerts, meet other musicians, play with other musicians, and practice — and then you’ll find your voice through all of that.”

Prokofiev concerto

The Prokofiev is “quite difficult to practice,” she noted. But that will all pay off when Hancher audience members hear her in action.

“There’s a lot of slide finger passages,” she said. “There’s a lot of rhythmic excitement, there’s a lot of question-and-answer between the piano and the orchestra, and sometimes it’s like the piano and the orchestra are sort of battling. And sometimes they’re very much in harmony — there’s lots of interesting harmonies.

“It’s a very exciting concerto, and it doesn’t really stop from beginning to end,” she said. “There’s the occasional sort of slow bit, but they don’t last very long.”

She first played the piece about a year ago, and it took a couple of months to master, but she said the practice and discovery never end.

“With a piece like that you’ve worked with — or any piece — you’re always learning it over time. … Each performance, there’s something new to learn, and I’m still practicing it now, because there’s always more things.”

As the concerts begin, she’ll be warming up and practicing before she steps onstage, then resting afterward. Toward the end of the tour, she may feel like she can actually listen to the Debussy and Rachmaninoff pieces on the program.

Royal Philharmonic

Founded in 1946 in London, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is Great Britain’s national symphony orchestra, and performs about 200 concerts per year at home and abroad. In August 2021, Vasily Petrenko picked up the baton as music director, which the organization deemed “a landmark appointment in the RPO’s history.”

Kanneh-Mason has just completed a year as the orchestra’s artist in residence, so she said being on tour feels like that residency is continuing.

“They’re a wonderful orchestra,” she said, “and I’ve also made friends with some of the musicians over time, so it feels very homely to come back to them.”

Those connections were an important part of nurturing her personally and professionally during her recent residency.

“It’s wonderful, because it means I get to perform with the orchestra a lot,” she said, noting that she also participated in outreach programming. “And I’m building up a relationship with them over time, so I feel like I’m really getting to know the players. It also means I have the opportunity to explore different repertoire with them, as well.

“You don’t normally get that much time with an orchestra, so it’s really a privilege to have this length of time and this many performances with just one orchestra.”

She’s certain this tour won’t be the end of road with the ensemble. Now that she’s built a relationship with the orchestra, she’s looking forward to future collaborations.

Musical journey

Looking back, Kanneh-Mason grew up in a musical family in Nottingham, a couple hours north of London. The oldest of seven, she and her siblings — two boys and five girls — all played instruments, but she’s the only one who has become a professional musician.

She began piano lessons at age 6. By age 8 or 9, she knew music would be her career path — and she branched out in school.

“I did choir and orchestra and all of those things, because I think music is a very social thing, and it’s good to do that, as well,” she said. “You never want to be making music in a vacuum.”

Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich and Beethoven are her favorite composers, and on her bucket list are learning the Rachmaninoff Third Concerto and the Prokofiev Second Concerto. “I think those are my favorites,” she said.

Of the concert venues in which she’s played at home and abroad, her favorite so far is London’s Wigmore Hall, “because it’s a chamber music hall and I love playing chamber music,” she said. She’s played the smaller space in New York’s Carnegie Hall, and would like to return to perform on the larger stage someday. And after savoring a taste of Brazil’s music scene, she’d like to explore more halls in South America.

So how does music speak to her soul?

“I guess it just makes me feel many different things, depending on the piece,” she said. “I think music is something which is written to express human emotion — which is a huge range of things — so whatever emotion you’re feeling, there’s a piece of music for it. And if you're feeling nothing, then a piece of music can evoke a wide range of emotions.”

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