Sony Classical is excited to announce the release of Jeneba Kanneh-Mason’s debut album Fantasie.

Jeneba Kanneh-Mason has a passion for curating programmes that cross diverse musical landscapes, and on her debut solo album Fantasie, she takes listeners on a journey that explores connections across different composers’ sound worlds – whether they met, influenced each other, or simply existed in resonance.
 
From Claude Debussy, Frédéric Chopin and Alexander Scriabin to Florence Price, Margaret Bonds and William Grant Still, Jeneba presents a programme which is also very personal to her as an artist.

Frédéric Chopin is central to Jeneba’s repertoire, and she opens with his Second Piano Sonata in B flat minor, op.35, one of his most powerful works, celebrated for its emotional depth and technical brilliance.  This is followed by the Nocturnes, op.27, two contrasting pieces that illustrate Chopin’s mastery in evoking complex emotions in music. “These pieces need to feel as if they’re being improvised,” she reveals. “I’ve had to know the notes inside out, so that then when I come to performing it, I can see what happens. With Chopin, I don’t feel like I do the same thing every time.”

Anchoring her programme’s central section are three African-American composers dear to Jeneba’s heart – Florence Price (1887–1953), Margaret Bonds (1913–1972) and William Grant Still (1895–1978) – each in their way pioneering new modes of musical expression. Jeneba’s affinity for Florence Price is palpable, dating back to her 2021 BBC Proms debut with Price’s Piano Concerto.

The third youngest of the prodigiously musical Kanneh-Mason family, 22-year-old Jeneba knows instinctively who she is as a musician.

Jeneba Kanneh-Mason is a musician deeply committed to her craft, relishing the challenges of performance and recording and dedicated to her audience, whether in the concert hall or via her recordings and is a talented young artist for whom mastery isn’t just technical but emotional too.