Episode Transcript
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0:01
BBC Sounds, music, radio,
0:03
podcasts. Hello, I'm Lauren
0:05
Laverne and this is the Desert Island Discs
0:08
podcast. Every week I ask my guests to
0:10
choose the eight tracks, book and luxury they'd
0:12
want to take with them if they were
0:14
cast away to a desert island. And
0:17
for rights reasons, the music is shorter
0:19
than the original broadcast. I hope you
0:21
enjoy listening. My
0:45
cast away this week is the
0:47
cellist Shae-Kook-Anae Mason. At 24 he's
0:49
one of classical music's brightest stars,
0:51
with a CV many musicians twice
0:53
his age would kill for. His
0:56
appearance at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle
0:58
in 2018 catapulted him to
1:01
international recognition, with an estimated
1:03
global television audience of two
1:05
billion. Since then he's performed
1:07
everywhere from Downing Street to the Hollywood Bowl
1:09
and was a soloist at the last night
1:11
of the proms last year. He's the first
1:13
cellist to hit the top ten in the
1:15
British album chart and had an MBE for
1:18
outstanding achievement by the time he was 21.
1:21
He began playing the cello when he
1:23
was six. By nine he had completed
1:25
all of his music grades, receiving the
1:27
highest marks in the country and at
1:29
17 he won the BBC Young Musician
1:31
of the Year competition. He still remembers
1:33
the first time he picked up the
1:35
instrument that would change his life. He
1:38
says, I loved the feeling of almost
1:40
hugging an instrument and feeling its vibrations,
1:43
looking down at the fingerboard and seeing
1:45
all the possibilities. Shae-Kook-Anae
1:47
Mason, welcome to Desert Island Discs.
1:50
Thank you very much, thanks for having me. You're
1:52
absolutely thrilled that you're here, Shae-Kook. So how would
1:54
you describe your relationship with your cello today? I
1:57
mean, I was surprised that your cello was with
1:59
you. It's not with me literally
2:01
all the time, but a lot of the time
2:03
I have a rehearsal after this, that's why I
2:05
brought it. It did feel right that you walked
2:08
through the door carrying it though, I've got to
2:10
be honest. It's nice to have it
2:12
with me, it feels comforting. And I spend a lot of
2:14
time playing the cello and carrying the
2:16
cello and being with it. And it's, yeah,
2:19
in a way, it has taken me to so many places to
2:22
do so many things with the instruments. I'm grateful
2:24
for the cello itself. You've described performing
2:27
as a wonderful but draining sharing process. What
2:29
did you mean by that exactly? Oh,
2:32
yeah, I mean, not draining in a negative sense. I don't
2:34
think I can ever get tired of
2:36
it, but it requires so much energy
2:38
and concentration. And it's very, very demanding
2:41
in that sense. The responsibility of trying
2:43
to present this music
2:45
as truly and vividly
2:47
and honestly as possible is, yeah,
2:50
one that therefore takes a lot of focus. But
2:52
it's really wonderful. And I like the idea of a live
2:55
performance because you were there with this piece that's
2:57
written a few hundred years
3:00
ago, but it's been presented in this moment to
3:02
this group of people with this orchestra, this chamber
3:04
group in this hall. At this time, I love
3:07
the centering energy of that.
3:09
And it feels like that's really such
3:12
a special thing. For someone
3:14
for whom music has been such a central
3:16
part of their lives, how on earth did
3:18
you go about choosing your discs for this
3:20
programme? And here's a combination of things
3:22
that bring about very, very strong memories, some
3:25
things that I find really give
3:29
me a feeling of excitement or
3:31
exploring something or something that's like
3:34
I look at with wonder. And I
3:36
think keeping those things with me
3:38
as well, this sense of exploring and looking
3:41
upwards and around and inwards.
3:45
And I think that's a sense of exploration and wonder is
3:47
a great place to start. So let's go. Tell us about
3:49
your first disc, what have you chosen and why. Definitely
3:52
in the prayers and recordings of Alcos. I
3:55
was, yeah, surrounded by my wife I heard
3:57
and so I've had this wonderful
3:59
video about it. and
4:02
I used to watch them a lot growing
4:04
up and just trying to figure
4:06
out what was going on. But I think it's a
4:08
piece that is so fragile
4:10
at times and so constantly
4:13
changing and constantly expressing, I
4:15
guess, and the intention
4:17
behind how she plays
4:19
with this level of intensity and honesty has
4:23
had a massive impact on me. Part
5:26
of the first movement from Elgar's
5:28
Cello Concerto, performed by Jacqueline Dupree
5:30
with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted
5:32
by Sir John Barber Ollie. Sheku
5:34
Kanemason, you were born in 1999, your
5:37
dad Stuart is a senior executive for
5:39
a luxury travel company and your mum
5:41
Caddy is a former university lecturer. You
5:43
grew up in Nottingham, you're the third
5:45
of seven children and all of you
5:47
play musical instruments to an exceptionally high
5:49
standard. If I was to pay a visit
5:51
to the family home when you were a kid, what would
5:54
I have seen and heard? A lot
5:56
of practising all the time, well in the evenings once
5:58
you came back from. school we'd
6:00
all practice often at the same time
6:03
so it'd be quite a confetti of
6:05
noise, sometimes nice sounding music but I
6:07
think practice is a lot of repeating the same
6:10
things that wouldn't be so pleasant and
6:12
difficult to be listening to
6:14
necessarily but I found growing up in that environment
6:16
where you're surrounded by everyone else practicing it found
6:19
it meant that practice was less of
6:21
a lonely thing because everyone else was
6:23
doing it around me and so though I was in
6:25
the room on my own working things out by myself
6:27
it felt like a thing that was
6:29
quite collective and then outside
6:32
of that when we were interacting as siblings
6:34
it was chaos in terms of conversations and
6:36
shouting over each other and it works
6:39
because that's how we've done it. Was
6:42
there a sense of competition between the seven of you,
6:44
you know all interested in
6:46
music or motivated to do well
6:48
and achieve? I think within music
6:51
there was never the sense of competition
6:54
I think in almost everything
6:56
else like how tall we were going to grow
6:58
or who's going to win this game of that
7:01
or who's going to finish the
7:03
food first so you can get the first second helping or
7:05
he's going to have the biggest piece of chicken all those
7:07
kinds of things there was always constant competition
7:09
but not with music. I think we inspired each other
7:15
and helped each other and learnt
7:18
together in lots of ways. And
7:20
day to day your mum was looking
7:22
after you guys the most because your
7:24
dad worked quite long hours and was
7:26
away early morning until evening so
7:29
she was flying solo with all your kids she
7:31
must have been very organised
7:33
in fact disciplined to manage all
7:35
of you. Yeah quite amazing I think both
7:37
my parents to be very honest are
7:39
certainly some of the hardest working people
7:42
I've ever met and to have been around
7:44
that from a young age. I
7:46
think that's why my although
7:48
my motivation for practice you
7:51
know fluctuates a little bit I think this sense
7:53
of practice and work being important
7:55
was shown to
7:57
us all by my parents constantly because...
7:59
because they were always
8:02
working as hard as possible and had this
8:05
genuine love and commitment to all of us.
8:07
So you were taught that by example. Did
8:09
it ever bring a bit of pressure though?
8:11
I mean, it can be a lot, the
8:13
expectation, especially when you're doing well, because as
8:15
you've heard, you spun through all those grades
8:17
in three years, I think, from picking up
8:19
a cello to finishing your grade eight with
8:22
the highest marks in the country. But a
8:24
lot of expectation must have been with
8:26
stuff around you. Yeah, I think expectation is not
8:28
necessarily a bad or good thing. I think it
8:30
can be a very, very, very good thing. I
8:33
think pressure maybe is a
8:35
different thing. I didn't feel the sense of pressure
8:37
because I always felt very supported in everything I
8:39
did. And if I was struggling
8:41
with something, the chance to ask for help
8:44
was always there. All
8:46
right, well, I think on that note, we'd better have
8:48
some more music, your second disc, if you would, Shaker,
8:51
what's it gonna be? Reversal of
8:53
Babylon by The Melodians. We
8:55
used to have this CD that
8:57
my dad had written in pen on
9:00
old Jamaica songs or something, I think. And all of
9:02
the tracks were listed as just like track one, track
9:04
two, track two, track three, track four. And this was,
9:07
I can't remember, like track three. But we knew the
9:09
name of this song. Some of the songs we
9:11
didn't know the names of necessarily.
9:13
And the sense of play with
9:15
a lot of that music was
9:17
also such a big part of
9:19
how we listened and how we talked about
9:22
it being open and listening. We do
9:25
a lot of listening to music and dancing, I
9:27
mean, we're listening in the car. And
9:29
that's how we did it. ["S
9:42
M Ke
10:03
The Melodians and Rivers of Babylon.
10:06
So, Shae Kukana Mason, you started learning
10:08
piano when you were five, following in
10:11
the footsteps of your big sister, Isata,
10:13
and then took up the violin. Now,
10:15
those instruments didn't take, why
10:17
not? Yeah, well,
10:19
I was having lessons at
10:22
the very beginning of learning the
10:24
violin and I think it
10:26
wasn't so in it and so those lessons
10:28
I think were difficult for both
10:30
of us, but particularly for my mum. So,
10:32
when did you realise that the cello was what you
10:35
wanted to do? It was seeing someone else play. Yeah,
10:38
I have a memory of seeing a youth
10:41
orchestra, not a youth orchestra when I was about
10:43
six years old, seeing the cello section really,
10:46
really appealed and then I asked my parents
10:48
if it was possible to learn the cello. And
10:50
what was it about the instrument that you
10:52
were excited by? I think
10:55
at that age, I'm not sure. I
10:57
think playing the violin probably seeing something that
10:59
had a richer range
11:02
of sounds and being able
11:04
to sit down and embrace the
11:06
cello seems much more natural
11:08
and enjoyable. You had a lot of support
11:10
at primary school, I know, in learning
11:13
music and secondary school too. What did both
11:15
schools do to nurture and support your talent?
11:18
Both at primary school and secondary school had like
11:21
concerts at the end of town where people
11:23
would play and I remember at my
11:25
primary school, everyone from year four
11:27
upwards would learn either trumpet, trombone
11:29
or clarinet. There were lots
11:31
of bands and music nights.
11:33
We'd walk into assembly every morning and the head teacher
11:36
would be playing on the CD
11:38
play or whatever it was, the A.M.R's
11:40
Bach Suites for example, and Wojak New
11:42
Weltz, I remember hearing that a lot.
11:46
I know that now you're a big advocate
11:48
for music education, you visit schools, perform to
11:50
kids. What do you get out of
11:52
those visits? I love those visits.
11:54
I was just in the US and
11:57
went to school in Philadelphia where
11:59
the just started a program of
12:01
everyone learning a string instrument and it
12:03
was incredibly moving to see a
12:05
room full of children learning an instrument for the
12:07
first time and sort of developing their relationship and
12:09
talking to them about it and then playing to
12:11
them and seeing from their questions and from their
12:14
actions what they were listening to and responding to
12:16
and what I love about it is the feeling
12:18
of confidence and
12:20
having each child having something that they can
12:23
do themselves and work out and explore and
12:25
listen and have this feeling of endless
12:28
creativity and exploration
12:31
but also the discipline and the
12:33
focus that is required to learn an instrument I
12:36
think is incredibly important
12:38
and centring and humbling. Budgets
12:40
are being cut and music education doesn't
12:42
necessarily feel like a priority today. How
12:44
do you feel about that? I'm
12:47
devastated. It's really a massive
12:50
disservice to our
12:52
children in this country. We're not
12:54
giving them access to quality music education.
12:56
You therefore create a massive divide
12:59
of people who have access to this and
13:01
you don't and that's I think very very
13:03
very unfair and that's why I think it's such
13:05
a shame. And you've expressed your gratitude to the
13:08
school that supported you when you were a kid.
13:10
You know you've put on concerts. Do you know
13:12
what they get to do with the money that
13:14
you've raised? For a while I funded
13:16
some cello lessons for students
13:18
there for a few years and
13:21
various things. I've been back to perform
13:23
and to talk to children hopefully as
13:25
an inspiration. I know in the music
13:27
department there there's lots of stuff about
13:29
myself and my family. It's a bit odd going
13:31
back to the school and having that there to be
13:33
honest but it's also like going to
13:36
your nan's house and all the very embarrassing
13:38
conversations. A little bit like that
13:40
but no it's really wonderful and I'm
13:42
so grateful to how supportive they were
13:44
of me and my family. All right Shaker
13:46
we've been talking about music and I've let hear some more.
13:49
Disc number three what have you got for us today? A
13:51
song called that by Pluto Sheffington. Again one I
13:53
listen to a lot as a child my dad
13:56
has the record and so he'd play that often.
13:58
For a while I think either the record probably was
14:00
broken or the rock off my scratch. The Easter. You
14:03
know, just a thing where it keeps repeating the
14:05
same, like few seconds, many, many, many times. So
14:08
now when I listen to that song, I always expect like a,
14:10
a few, a few
14:12
of the bits. Yeah, it's a great song. Pluto,
14:30
Shervington and Dat. Shaco,
14:45
Canay, Mason, when you were eight, you won
14:48
a scholarship to join the primary Academy of
14:50
the Royal Academy of Music in London and
14:52
had lessons there every Saturday. Now,
14:54
classical music is an extremely expensive pursuit
14:56
and your mum has said that every
14:58
penny she had went on music lessons,
15:00
travel instruments. She never bought new clothes,
15:02
wouldn't put the heating on during the
15:04
day, never changed the car. Were
15:07
you aware of the sacrifices that your parents were
15:09
making, not just for you, but for all of
15:11
your siblings? A lot
15:13
of the amount of different
15:15
sacrifices, I don't think I was necessarily aware of,
15:17
but now, yeah, I think the
15:20
level of commitment and love that my parents showed
15:23
to us, I think is remarkable.
15:26
As much as your parents were compassionate and
15:28
supportive, they weren't quite strict about certain things,
15:30
I think. They restricted your access to TV
15:32
as a kid and to the family computer
15:35
as well. Did you ever resent that, try
15:37
to get around it? Certainly
15:40
tried to get around it for sure. And
15:42
actually, yeah, with the, with the laptop, we
15:44
was only allowed to be used
15:46
for homework. And when it was, my
15:48
mum would have to come in and all my dad would
15:50
type the password for the laptop. And we
15:52
weren't allowed to see what the password was. And my mum would
15:54
come back in the room. And when my dad would do it,
15:56
he would type really, really quickly. So he didn't actually mind. We
15:58
could be in the room. to work it
16:00
up. My mum types incredibly slowly with
16:03
one finger and so we set
16:05
up a small camera above
16:07
the laptop and asked my mum to do the
16:09
password and so she came in and did the password and
16:12
then we watched the video back and we could decipher
16:14
very easily what it was and so then for a
16:17
while we had access to the laptop in
16:19
secret. Things like that. Did
16:21
your parents ever find out about that? I
16:25
think yeah, I think that laptop story for example,
16:27
I think we told them many,
16:29
many years later when that didn't matter.
16:31
I think that's something we did get caught
16:33
but it
16:36
was clear that my mum was always showing her
16:39
best and always showing love so to
16:41
then disobey that felt, felt good. My
16:43
dad was terrifying I think sometimes. I
16:46
mean all in a, you know, coming
16:49
from a place of love and making sure
16:51
that we understood why that
16:53
wasn't allowed. It's time
16:55
for your next piece of music Shaky. We've got to make
16:57
room for disc number four. What's it going to be? This
17:00
is Haydn's string quartet in C
17:02
major, a performance from
17:05
the London Haydn Quartet. And
17:07
why have you chosen it? I think Haydn's string
17:09
quartets and chamber music in general played a massive
17:11
and does play a massive part of my life.
17:13
I love the feeling of being in a
17:15
group with three, four, five,
17:17
four, whatever voices talking very
17:20
intimately. This piece, it's either
17:22
a shock in terms of how much it arrests
17:24
you or it's this
17:26
feeling of awe of how can something
17:29
be so magical and so precious.
17:31
Also the feeling of music that I think is
17:33
like out of
17:36
this world in the sense of like going beyond
17:38
like, I don't know, the imagination
17:40
of what I feel that I can like feel and
17:42
touch and see. I mean it's like beyond
17:44
that. you
18:44
part of the second movement of Haydn's string
18:47
quartet in C major, opus 20 number
18:49
2, performed by the London Haydn
18:51
Quartet. Shiku Kane
18:54
Mason, you and your brother and sisters
18:56
got a lot of positive attention growing
18:58
up, but you've also talked about experiencing
19:00
racial prejudice. What form did it take
19:02
and how did you deal with it? Very
19:05
often in the spaces that I was in
19:07
within classical music, myself and my
19:09
family were very often the only black
19:11
people in those ages and
19:14
that's, you know, most of the time
19:16
was fine in the sense of, you know, I felt
19:18
comfortable and all good. But yeah, there are
19:20
certainly occasions where my being black
19:22
was meant that I wasn't necessarily taken seriously
19:25
in the same situations. And also outside of
19:27
music, that's normal. So
19:31
in terms of those situations where you said you weren't
19:34
taken seriously, what not listened to, not
19:36
kind of included? Yeah, and often it's
19:38
as much as the look from some people
19:41
when you walk on. Okay,
19:43
so the subtler thing? I think most
19:46
often the subtler things, but
19:48
yeah, sometimes also much more
19:51
obvious. Are you talking from people
19:53
watching you perform or people in the
19:55
orchestras or? Not from
19:57
musicians that I was with or teachers
19:59
generally. from audience. And
20:01
what was your framework for understanding
20:04
that? Because especially when it's subtext rather
20:06
than something that somebody's actually saying, it's
20:08
a really big thing to get your
20:10
head around. Who did you talk
20:12
to about it and who helped you understand it?
20:15
My parents a lot. For sure.
20:17
What gave me the
20:19
strength in those situations is we've been in
20:21
a lot of time as children watching documentaries
20:23
of like real like black heroes
20:25
succeeding and being
20:28
challenged and overcoming those people
20:30
like Muhammad Ali. I think they
20:32
yeah were certainly a source of like
20:34
inspiration and understanding of those situations. And
20:37
unfortunately it is still something that
20:39
you have to deal with. Someone
20:41
recently posted a racist message on
20:43
social media after a proms performance
20:45
given by your sister Isata. The
20:47
family saw it. How did
20:50
that affect you? And how do you deal with
20:52
those comments today? The
20:54
isolated incidents in the moment
20:56
are offensive and affect
20:58
you but that's
21:00
something that one can deal with.
21:02
But I think the
21:05
long term effects I think can be something
21:07
that you're less aware of and more
21:09
difficult to deal with. How you
21:11
view yourself and how you are
21:13
valued and your confidence and how you
21:16
feel that you fit into the world.
21:18
I think that's where for me at
21:20
least. And how where are you up
21:22
with that? What's your perspective on that? It's
21:26
yeah something that I have to think about and examine
21:28
very often. I live in a
21:30
house with my brother and a friend
21:32
who's a mixed-race classical guitarist
21:35
from Brazil and the three
21:37
of us we talk about. There's a lot and I'm grateful
21:39
for the conversations that we have because yeah
21:41
you need to support people
21:44
like that because it's
21:46
hard to navigate yourself I think. It's
21:49
time for your next track Shae-Koo. What are you going
21:52
to take with you to the island next? There's
21:54
a song at B quite
22:01
frequently I find it is
22:03
very accepting and hopeful. Bob
22:36
Marley and Chances are Chez Couette
22:38
Canimason in 2016 you won the BBC Young
22:41
Musician of the Year competition. This was your
22:43
third go, it's held every other year so
22:45
that's quite a long held dream for one
22:47
who is so young. What does
22:50
it mean to you to finally win it? Yeah
22:52
it was a wonderful experience and opportunity
22:54
to, particularly in the final for example,
22:56
perform for a big audience on television
22:59
with a professional orchestra and the
23:01
experience of playing concerto. There
23:04
was a lot of commentary in the media after
23:06
you won because you were the first black musician
23:09
to win the competition. What did that first mean
23:11
to you? Yeah I was
23:13
very proud of that achievement and I
23:15
think what it means to me is hopefully to
23:17
inspire other young black children to see the cello
23:20
and classical music is something that they can go
23:22
on to do by seeing me. Yeah
23:25
that would be wonderful. And
23:27
there was a lot of celebration at home
23:29
in Nottingham and other council were absolutely delighted
23:31
to see you win and actually
23:33
did something to commemorate the victory.
23:36
That was quite extraordinary. Yeah they
23:38
named a bus like a public
23:40
bus after me and so I had like a picture of me
23:42
on the back and then on the front like my name. I
23:45
think it was the bus route that I would take to school
23:47
and so that was like a little bit embarrassing. So
23:50
you had to get on your own bus.
23:52
It was like the bus route would be
23:54
like every like seven or eight. buses
24:00
it would be amazing. No he had the
24:02
anxiety of not knowing it. But no it's
24:04
a massive it's
24:06
a massive honor of course. I mean you
24:09
know we're joking but there is a lot
24:11
of responsibility that comes alongside that level of
24:13
success. Is that ever uncomfortable or heavy
24:16
to carry for you? No
24:19
because I love music and
24:21
do genuinely care about it and so I'm glad
24:23
of the less
24:26
responsibility but opportunity to be able to share that with
24:28
people and I think that's something
24:30
I really really enjoy.
24:33
Speaking of which it's time for your next
24:35
disc. Number six what are we going to hear
24:37
and why are you taking it to the island? I'm
24:40
taking Mozart's Requiem. It's one of
24:42
those pieces that I
24:44
find incredibly stirring and
24:47
also very very comforting.
25:51
The opening of Mozart's Requiem in
25:53
D minor performed by the Monteverdi
25:55
Choir and the English Baroque soloists
25:57
conducted by John Elliott Gardner. Shaco
26:00
Canimason, you played the wedding of Prince Harry
26:03
and Meghan Markle, Winter Castle 2018.
26:05
What do you remember about actually playing at the ceremony? I
26:07
think they were signing the register and you did, was it
26:10
three pieces you played? Yeah, three pieces. I think at
26:12
the time of performing I was very much, I
26:15
don't know, it felt like very much just playing to
26:17
the people in the room. Of course, maybe somewhere I
26:19
was aware of the fact that it's broadcast around the
26:21
world. To billions. But then also the people in
26:23
the room to be fair, Shaco, I mean, we're
26:25
talking David Beckham, the
26:29
entire Royal Family. Yes,
26:32
yes. And many other luminaries.
26:34
I think in terms of like nervousness, I'd
26:37
be more nervous for my channel
26:39
lesson because I know that my teacher listens in a
26:41
certain way and a certain level of detail. So I
26:43
think, I guess what I'm
26:45
saying is the audience. Yeah, for
26:47
me, I'm grateful for them being there,
26:49
but I don't think who is there necessarily puts
26:53
something more, you know, as a more
26:55
of pressure event. But I suppose, yeah,
26:57
I'm still a very, very shy person
26:59
by nature. And that will always
27:01
be there. And last year
27:03
you performed at the last night of the
27:05
proms. What did it feel like playing such
27:07
a prominent role in this well-loved prestigious music
27:09
festival? Wonderful, wonderful feeling. And
27:12
as such a feeling
27:14
of celebration, I find that the
27:16
proms have performed. Many
27:18
times at the festival, I think generally
27:20
the festival has such a feeling of
27:22
celebration of music. And yeah, to be
27:25
a part of that is wonderful. It's
27:28
obviously been a lot of conversation, certain
27:30
amount of controversy around the rendition of
27:32
Royal Britannia at the last night. What's
27:35
your view on whether it should be included or not? I
27:38
don't think it should be included. And I didn't stay for
27:40
that. It's just my opinion. Why not? I
27:43
think maybe some people didn't
27:45
realize how uncomfortable a song like
27:47
that can make a lot of people feel,
27:49
even if it makes them feel good. I think that's
27:52
somehow a big misunderstanding about it.
27:56
What do you think it should be replaced with, if anything? What would
27:58
you like to do instead? There's so much wonderful British
28:02
music. I mean, like the wealth of folk music from
28:04
this country is astonishing. I think
28:06
that would be a wonderful thing to take its place. I mean,
28:09
yeah, there's so much that I think is worth
28:12
celebrating and having as part of a big
28:14
celebration at the end of a wonderful music
28:16
festival. Time for
28:18
disc number seven, Shae-Koo. What are we gonna hear
28:20
next and why? Shasta-Kabocha Symphony
28:24
number 11, an unbelievable
28:26
piece of music. I listened to it the first time,
28:28
I think I was about
28:31
14 or 15 and listened in bed
28:33
with me. And
28:36
listened to the whole symphony at once and couldn't
28:38
believe the journey that I'd been on
28:40
listening to, I think. I've never seen
28:42
it live, actually, I would love to hear it live but I
28:44
listened to this recording often, I think. Mm-hmm.
29:29
Mm-hmm. Part
29:49
of Shasta-Kabocha Symphony number 11
29:51
performed by the Moscow Philharmonic,
29:53
conducted by Kirill Kondrashin. Shae-Koo
29:57
Kanemason, you were diagnosed with type
29:59
1 diabetes. diabetes when you were 12. How
30:01
did you manage the diagnosis at such a
30:03
young age? The diagnosis
30:06
came as a shock
30:08
and all that comes with that
30:10
afterwards was all very new and
30:13
a lot to deal with. And then at that
30:15
age you're growing and changing and
30:17
so a lot of the management of the diabetes
30:19
is I think more, I'm trying
30:21
to get that time because your body's
30:23
changing. What you have to do has to be different
30:25
each day. As you get older and
30:27
it becomes a bit more stable and also much more used to
30:30
it than it's easier but it's
30:32
something that I constantly have to think about
30:34
and manage. Performing with it can
30:36
be a challenge because it would
30:38
be a massive shame
30:41
if my blood sugar would go low into
30:43
my hyper as I was playing. So do
30:46
you have to be very careful about that? I have to
30:48
be very careful about that and make sure that my blood
30:50
sugar's at a good level before I go on stage because
30:52
the adrenaline and the physicality and the focus of it can
30:54
cause it to decrease. It can cause it to decrease. the
30:57
day I've been managing my blood sugar and it's
30:59
a thing that I haven't accepted. I
31:07
haven't will always. You've
31:09
already achieved so much at just
31:11
24. I wonder what your
31:14
mindset is like these days having had
31:16
to develop such discipline and having achieved
31:18
so many goals. Is
31:20
that how you think now? Do you still have
31:22
more that you're striving for or are you in
31:24
a different place? There
31:27
are some very immediate things in terms of
31:29
always learning new pieces of music and that
31:31
keeps me constantly striving for. You'll never get
31:33
to the end of all that. Impossible and
31:35
as well with the pieces of music that
31:38
I already know to some level there's a
31:40
constant development with
31:42
that as well. There
31:45
are many projects that I would like to do
31:47
and there's a
31:49
youth orchestra in Antigua where
31:52
my grandparents are from. I
31:54
was set up six years ago that I sat up with my family
31:57
and the government there. I
32:00
would love for there to be
32:02
a concert hall on the island and for that
32:04
to become one of the senses of classical music
32:06
and in the world, that's like a ambition
32:09
of mine that I would like to see. Shae-Koo,
32:12
the last few years have been
32:14
difficult for classical music and classical
32:17
musicians, obviously the pandemic, cuts to
32:19
opera companies and orchestras, audiences that
32:21
are aging as well. How
32:23
worried do you feel about the future
32:25
of classical music? The
32:28
future of classical music is something that one needs
32:30
to fight for and talk about
32:32
and hopefully sort of be a part of. But
32:34
I think the young musicians that
32:37
I see all the time fill
32:40
me with a lot of confidence
32:42
in the future of classical music,
32:45
but it will require a lot of
32:47
work in many different areas. I'm
32:49
certainly confident in its future, however it will
32:52
look like. And obviously
32:54
we're about to cast your way to the island. What
32:56
will you miss most, do you think? Family,
32:59
friends, just people to interact
33:01
and share with. If I
33:03
think about most of the experiences in my
33:06
lifetime, really,
33:08
really, really enjoyed. It
33:10
will take me a while to think of ones that happened on
33:12
my own. Well, Shae-Koo,
33:14
we've got your company for one more disc
33:17
before we cast you away. So what
33:19
are we going to hear? What's your last choice today? This
33:21
is the Lago from one
33:24
of Bach's organ sonatas. It's
33:26
played by the pianist Samuel Feinberg, and
33:29
it's magical. Thank
33:55
you. you
34:32
Mark's Organ Sonata No. 5 in
34:34
C Major, played on the piano
34:36
by Samuel Feinberg So,
34:39
Shakyukana Mason, I'm going to send you away to
34:41
the islands now, I'm giving you the Bible, the
34:43
complete works of Shakespeare and you can take one
34:45
other book. What will that be? Richard
34:48
Feynman, the Lecture on Physics, which I've
34:50
not read before, so yeah,
34:52
I think I would learn a lot. Well
34:55
that'll sharpen up your scientific perspective on the
34:57
island. It will, yeah, exactly. That's
34:59
yours. You can also have a luxury item, what's that going
35:01
to be? Coachella, it certainly would be
35:03
that. I'm not sure how it's going to survive on an
35:05
island though, like if I break a string. I'm going to
35:07
have to give you something. I think I can throw in.
35:09
Can you throw in a few things? I
35:12
think I'm throwing in, I think. Yeah, and some hairs for the bow.
35:15
Okay, so some more terms and strings. Yeah,
35:17
thank you very much. And
35:19
finally, which one track of the eight that you
35:21
shared with us today would you say from the
35:23
waves? I
35:25
would go from Mozart's Requiem. Having something with
35:27
voices can communicate something that's really,
35:29
really, really powerful and I think that piece
35:32
has so much in it, so
35:34
much wonder and awe and it's,
35:36
yeah, I would say, Mozart's
35:38
Requiem. I would probably change my
35:40
mind as soon as I leave this. You
35:43
would get to save that one and then wade back
35:45
over the others. Yeah, I can dive into this. I'm
35:47
not a very good swimmer. Oh
35:50
no, there's no escape plan for you. There's really
35:52
no escape. You'll be all right. You've got your
35:54
cello. Shake a can
35:57
of Mason. Thank you very much.
36:00
much for letting us hear your desert island discs.
36:02
It's a pleasure, thank you. Hello,
36:25
I hope you enjoyed my conversation with
36:27
Shae Koo. I'm sure his cello will
36:29
bring him much happiness and comfort on
36:32
the island. We've cast away many musicians
36:34
including one of Shae Koo's heroines, Jacqueline
36:36
Dupree and Yo-Yo Ma, and the Penis,
36:38
Steven Hoff and Mitsuko Uchida. You can
36:41
find these episodes in our Desert Island
36:43
Discs program archive and through BBC Sounds.
36:45
The studio manager for today's program was
36:47
Emma Hart, the assistant producer was Christine
36:50
Pavlovski and the producer was Paula McGinley.
36:52
The series editor is John Gowdy. Next
36:54
time my guest will be the actor Jamie
36:57
Dornan. I do
37:00
hope you'll
37:02
join us.
37:04
I'm Tom
37:11
Heap and I'm Helen Cheriski, a journalist
37:13
and a physicist ready to tackle the
37:15
biggest issues on the planet. We've had
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a toxic relationship with nature for too long.
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It's time to reset and rekindle our love
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37:24
on Rare Earth, a podcast from BBC
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Radio 4, we investigate a major story
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about our environment and wildlife, we delve
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into the history, how on earth did
37:32
we get here and we search for
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effective solutions to rising temperatures and collapsing
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wildlife. But this won't be a
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week-y dose of doom-laden predictions. We're here to
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meet the brave and clever people with fresh
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