7 famous classical music families performing today

But that was then, what about now? Are there any contemporary families awash with classical music talent currently performing on the world’s stages?

Well, the answer, it would seem, is a resounding yes. And so we’ve taken a closer look and put together this little rundown of seven sets of siblings keeping classical music very much in the family.

The Bevan Family Consort

As musical families go there are none bigger, certainly in numbers, than the Bevans. It all began in the 1970s when music teacher Roger Bevan realised the singing talent of his 14 (yes, 14) homeschooled children. With them, in 1975, he formed the Bevan Choir, who soon went from performing in the houses of friends to releasing an LP and touring Europe. The choir disbanded in the 1980s as many of its members became parents themselves, but the Bevans never stopped singing, and after a one-off fundraising family performance in 2013, the current generation chose to resurrect the tradition as the Bevan Family Consort.

The present day performing Bevan collective consists of 15 cousins, boasting a mix of amateur and professional singers – operatic sopranos Sophie and Mary the most famous of its members – and a notable strand of playful familial teasing (Daisy Bevan’s Twitter bio reads ‘when you want Sophie and Mary but your budget is TK Maxx’). The Bevan Family Consort continues to come together to perform, and most recently appeared here at the Southbank Centre on 26 November, 2023.

Katia and Marielle Labèque

Hailing from Bayonne in very south west France, sisters Katia and Marielle Labèque began piano lessons together when they were three and five years old respectively. After they both graduated from the Conservatoire de Paris they began performing piano four hands, and two pianos repertoire, recording several albums, before finding international fame in 1980 with their rendition of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. One of the first gold records in classical music, it catapulted the siblings into a career which has seen them perform in concert halls the world over, and with some of the planet’s most prestigious orchestras.

The pair have been chosen to premiere new works by composers including Philip Glass, Nico Muhly and Bryce Dessner, whose concerto they premiered here in our Royal Festival Hall with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Some of their most remarkable performances include playing to an audience of more than 100,000 at the Vienna Summer Night Concert in Schonbrunn. Safe to say there were much fewer fans than that present when the Labèque sisters joined us at the Southbank Centre in January 2024.

The Kanneh-Masons

In 2018 a worldwide audience of millions watched on as a young cellist performed at the wedding of Prince Harry and Megan Markle. Though the bulk of the global audience may have been getting their first viewing of Sheku Kanneh-Mason, the young performer was no stranger to the limelight. Sheku had been crowned 2016’s BBC Young Musician of the Year, and in that same year had appeared with his siblings on the ITV show Britain’s Got Talent. There are seven Kanneh-Masons, the offspring of Stuart Mason and Dr Kadiatu Kanneh, and every one of them is a talented musician.

Older than Sheku is pianist Isata who you may have seen here in one of several Southbank Centre performances in recent years, and violinist Braimah. Whilst the younger members of the septet, in descending age order, are Konya who plays violin and piano, Jeneba who plays cello and piano,  pianist and violinist Aminata, and cellist and pianist, Mariatu who is the youngest of the group. As a seven-strong collective the Kanneh-Masons recorded the album Carnival in 2020, whilst Sheku and Isata joined forces for Muse in 2021. Like his sister, Sheku is no stranger to the Southbank Centre and having most recently joined us in 2024.

Amaan and Ayan Ali Bangash

Brothers Amaan and Ayaan Ali Bangash represent the seventh generation of a musical lineage known as the Senia Bangash School. Both are masters of the sarod – having given their first public performances at the age of eight – which is perhaps inevitable given that the instrument is said to have been invented by the Bangash lineage. Their pioneering approach to the repertoire of the sarod has seen them collaborate with a breadth of musicians including guitarist Derek Trucks, violinist Elmira Dararova, folk singer Carrie Newcomer, and perhaps most regularly, their father, the sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan.

Together they have performed the world over at venues including Carnegie Hall, Sydney Opera House, Konzerthaus Vienna, Concertgebouw Amsterdam and a little place called the Royal Festival Hall. Yep, in 2019 we were lucky enough to welcome Amaan and Ayaan and Amjad Ali Khan for a performance here at the Southbank Centre.

Lucas and Arthur Jussen

With their flute teacher mother, and a father who is a timpanist in the Dutch Radio Philharmonic Orchestra there’s an argument that the Jussen brothers were always destined for a musical future. Having begun playing the piano in early childhood the pair came to prominence in 2006 when at the ages of ten (Arthur) and 13 (Lucas), they played Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 10 with the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic under Jaap van Zweden.

After studying under Portuguese pianist Maria João Pires, and completing their studies at the Conservatory of Amsterdam (Arthur) and Menahem Pressler, and the Reina Sofía School of Music (Lucas) the pair have gone on to record several albums together, and play with leading orchestras the world over. And in March 2024 they added the Philharmonia Orchestra to that list when they performed Tchaikovsky and Mozart with them here in our Royal Festival Hall in a concert led by Eun Sun Kim.

Alisa and Joshua Weilerstein

Alisa Weilerstein is another artist who is no stranger to the Southbank Centre, with the American cellist having performed in our auditoria multiple times over the years, most recently in November last year when she joined the Philharmonia Orchestra for a concert of Strauss and Brahms. Born in Rochester, New York Alisa began playing the cello at the age of four, and by the age of 13 had made her debut with the Cleveland Orchestra playing Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme. She has since gone on to a notable career that has seen her accrue a number of accolades, among them the Leonard Bernstein Prize, which she picked up in 2006.

But Alicia is not the only Weilerstein to forge a career in classical music. Her mother Vivian Hornik Weilerstein was a pianist and her father Donald Weilerstein a violinist, which was also the initial instrument of choice for her brother Joshua, before his time at the New England Conservatory led him down the path of conducting. After winning both the First Prize and the Audience Prize at the Malko Competition for Young Conductors in Copenhagen in 2009 Joshua was appointed as Assistant Conductor of the New York Philharmonic from 2012 to 2015. He now enjoys a guest conducting career which has seen him work with some of the leading orchestras and soloists around the world.

Anoushka Shankar and Norah Jones

Musicians Norah Jones and Anoushka Shankar were 18 and 16 respectively when they first met; both on the cusp of their musical careers. Shankar, who had begun learning the sitar at the age of eight, and accompanying her father Ravi Shankar on the tanpura from the age of ten, would release her first album, Anoushka, within a year. Jones meanwhile was about to leave University of North Texas to pursue a career in music in New York, having shown great promise as a jazz vocalist at high school. But the two shared more than just a burgeoning musical career, they also shared a father.

As their respective fortunes have blossomed and their musical star has increased – to the extent that both Jones and Shankar have enjoyed enough awards and award nominations to merit there own sections on their respective wikipedia entries – the half-sisters have remained in regular contact. In 2013 the pair finally worked together musical for the first time as Jones appeared on Shankar’s Traces of You album, and in 2022 they performed together live for the first time, here in our own Royal Festival Hall as part of our Covid-19 pandemic delayed Ravi Shankar 100 celebrations, marking their father’s musical career and legacy. Norah Jones joined us again in. November 2023, when she performed in our Royal Festival Hall as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival.