Holocaust survivor and Royal Wedding Cellist among Midlands New Year's Honours
A Holocaust survivor and a Cellist who played at the Royal Wedding are amongst those from the Midlands on the New Year's Honours list.
Mindu Hornick, 90, and Sheku Kanneh-Mason, 20, have become MBEs today (28 December) for their work.
The Birmingham -based 90-year-old hopes that the honour will raise awareness of Islamophobia and anti-Semitism.
Mindu, who was born in Czechoslovakia, has been educating people about the Holocaust for around 20 years.
She works with the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and the Anne Frank Trust, educating young people to love each other and 'appreciate each other's faiths and beliefs'.
The 20 years old from Nottingham is being award for his services to music.
He has been in high demand from major orchestras and concert halls worldwide since winning the 2016 BBC Young Musician of the Year.
The young cellist is also the first black musician to win the competition in its 38-year history.
He played in front of 600 guests at the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018.
Sheku is passionate about the importance of making classical music accessible to all and is currently the first London Music Masters Junior Ambassador.
He'll become ‘Young Artist in Residence’ at the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic taking a key role in the orchestra’s education programme.
On hearing that a rise of tuition costs at his old school was going to prevent other young cellists from continuing to receive cello lessons.
Sheku donated £3,000 to Trinity Catholic School, Nottingham, in September 2017, ensuring that 10 other young people could continue lessons for the next three years.
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