Jeneba Kanneh-Mason Releases SONGS WITHOUT WORDS EP on Sony Classical

Pianist Jeneba Kanneh-Mason has released her new EP, Songs Without Words, on Sony Classical. Thoughtfully curated by the artist, the EP brings together music by Felix Mendelssohn, Florence Price, Margaret Bonds, Camille Saint-Saëns and Nina Simone, continuing Jeneba's passion for championing overlooked voices and tracing the evolution of the Songs Without Words tradition across generations, musical styles and genres.

To acknowledge the origins of the genre Songs Without Words, Jeneba Kanneh-Mason has chosen Felix Mendelssohn's Song Without Words in G major, Op. 62 No. 1 Andante espressivo. Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) and his sister, Fanny Hensel Mendelssohn (1805-1847) were among the first composers to write 'Lieder ohne Worte', Felix Mendelssohn writing eight volumes of six songs, which became hugely popular.

Continuing her commitment to championing music by black women composers and bringing their often-overlooked repertoire to a wider audience, Jeneba returns to African American composers, Florence Price (1887-1953) and Margaret Bonds (1913-1972), both of whom were featured on her debut Sony Classical album, Fantasie. For Songs Without Words, she has chosen two rarely recorded works by Price: Song Without Words in G major 'Pleading' (c. 1928) and the lyrical yet dramatic Song Without Words in A major (1932). These sit alongside Bonds' The Bells, the second movement from her Spiritual Suite for Piano and based on the spiritual Peter, Go Ring Dem Bells, which Bonds developed into an elaborate piano piece.

Jeneba also showcases the Theme from Samson and Delilah by Saint-Saëns, famously performed by Nina Simone in the artist's own arrangement of this work as a solo piano piece during her 1963 debut solo concert at New York's Carnegie Hall. In a fitting tribute to Nina Simone, Jeneba recently performed this work while making her own debut at the Hollywood Bowl.

Jeneba Kanneh-Mason, of whom Gramophone wrote: 'her future will surely be dazzling' and who impressed BBC Music Magazine with her 'sparkle and self-possession', made her mark in March 2025 with her acclaimed debut album on Sony Classical, Fantasie, featuring works by Frederic Chopin, Florence Price, Margaret Bonds, William Grant Still, Claude Debussy and Alexander Scriabin of which International Piano magazine noted '…This is a debut recording of exceptional bravura and insight… Already she compels attention'. This much in-demand young artist and member of the Kanneh-Mason family of musicians, followed it in December 2025 with a self-curated EP, Jane Austen's Piano, exploring the musical world of fellow pianist and world-famous author, Jane Austen, released for the 250th anniversary of the writer's birth.

Songs Without Words Tracklist

1. Felix Mendelssohn: Lieder ohne Worte V, op. 62: I. Andante espressivo

2. Florence Price: Song Without Words in A Major

3. Margaret Bonds: Spiritual Suite: II. The Bells

4. Florence Price: Song Without Words in G Major (Pleading)

5. Camille Saint-Saëns: Theme from Samson and Delilah (arr. Nina Simone)