The Schubert Club booked cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason for its 2019-20 season. (Photo by Lars Borge)

English cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason made a splash last spring when he played for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's globally televised royal wedding. And now Twin Cities audiences will get to hear the young cellist, just 19 years old, when he performs with his pianist sister December 5 and 6 at St. Paul's Ordway Concert Hall. The concert is just one highlight of the Schubert Club's 2019-20 season, announced Tuesday.

Booking Kanneh-Mason wasn't a knee-jerk reaction to his breakout royal wedding appearance, either. Schubert Club Artistic and Executive Director Barry Kempton has been following Kanneh-Mason's career ever since he won the prestigious BBC Young Musician of the Year competition in 2016. He was the first black musician to win it, Kempton noted. "We booked Sheku in February 2018, before he played at the Royal Wedding."

The Schubert Club's 2019-20 International Artist Series, featuring concerts by some of the world's top classical musicians, also includes the phenomenal young Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov (March 10, 2020), operatic superstar Angela Gheorghiu (April 22, 2020) and a return by superstar violinist Joshua Bell (October 27).

Meanwhile, the popular Music in the Park Series, with its intimate chamber music concerts at St. Anthony Park United Church of Christ, includes debuts by the Montrose Trio (September 22) and the Modigliani Quartet (November 17) plus a violin recital by Minnesota Orchestra first associate concertmaster Susie Park (March 29, 2020).

Perhaps the biggest coup of Schubert Club's 2019-20 season is booking the Danish String Quartet to play all 16 of Beethoven's string quartets, marking the 250th anniversary of the composer's birth in 1770. Spread over six concerts in May 2020, the series marks the Schubert Club's first presentation of all the quartets in a single season.

"I couldn't imagine a more thrilling ensemble to explore Beethoven's complete quartet cycle," Kempton said of the booking. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to dig deep into an important part of Beethoven's musical legacy."

Season subscriptions can be purchased after 10 a.m. Tuesday via 651-292-3268 or schubert.org/subscribe. Single tickets are available starting Aug. 1.