Sheku Kanneh-Mason: what a total star. With a reported 18 million viewers in the UK and many millions more worldwide, the 19-year-old BBC Young Musician winner pulled it out of the bag at last month's royal wedding. It has been quite a year for Sheku, whose debut album Inspiration reached number 1 in the classical album charts, and number 18 in the overall chart.
Talk about nerves of steel though. It is not easy to perform at anybody's wedding, much less one in a space as magnificent as that – and let alone in front of the worldwide audience, Posh and Becks, George and Amal, Meghan's mum, and – oh yes – the actual Royal Family.
Performance is difficult, but it's not sensible to switch yourself off entirely from the situation. One day, MT will ask Sheku how he was feeling at the time, and how he got through it, but we'd be surprised if it wasn't similar to the advice gathered in our feature on performance anxiety from page 23. It's natural to get nervous, but try to turn it into excitement – if our pupils can be comfortable with, or even harness, their body's natural response to stressful situations, they will give better performances.
It was a pleasure to interview my former singing teacher for this issue. Dan Ludford-Thomas has been appointed musical director of the National Children's Choir of Great Britain (see page 28), and I met him where he still teaches, at Dulwich College in South London – I had been at a nearby school and was one of those ‘grumpy teenagers’ who he believes he is most skilled at getting to sing. I'm sure he will be a huge success at NCCGB – he had a huge influence not only on my singing, but on my confidence, social skills, and much more.
But speaking to him and to David Vinden, the most recent recipient of MT's lifetime achievement award (page 44), I realised anew the scale of the impact teachers have. I certainly reminded Dan of a few details – it was near enough 20 years ago, after all – and David Vinden said that, after a career like his, people he doesn't recognise from Adam are often tapping him on the shoulder to thank him for his teaching. Perhaps the best teachers have the most to forget, but every day they are changing lives.
