Having topped the classical music charts and performed before a global TV audience of hundreds of millions at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding, Sheku Kanneh-Mason is spoilt for choice when it comes to picking the highlight of his year.

The 19-year-old cellist says far more modest, less public events were just as enjoyable as the headline-grabbing moments. “It’s all been really, really amazing,” he said. “I have just enjoyed each thing but sometimes the really small things, like playing for children in a school, are really special.”

Music education is a passion for Kanneh-Mason, who is using his new-found fame to highlight its value amid concerns it is being squeezed out of the national curriculum in England.

“I think it’s so, so important,” said Kanneh-Mason, who attended a comprehensive school in Nottingham. “I was very, very lucky that all of the schools I went to were supportive of music. I had the opportunity to experience music from a young age and I’d love for everyone to have that opportunity.

“I think it’s such an amazing art in expressing yourself and understanding other people’s expression. I play a lot of music by dead composers and through their music we can understand their lives. Life and music are very connected and that’s a really special thing.”

If his star was already in the ascendant before 2018, becoming the first black instrumentalist to win the BBC’s Young Musician of the Year in 2016, it has entered another stratosphere, largely thanks to his moving performance at the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s wedding. The cellist’s debut album, Inspiration, reached No 11 in the pop charts, he won two Classic Brit awards and also played the Royal Variety performance. Additionally, he released his first Christmas single, his own arrangement of In the Bleak Midwinter, with his sister Isata Kanneh-Mason – one of six siblings, all musical – accompanying him on piano.

His growing fame sits easily with the teenager, who says he just loves playing music and sharing it with others, although he is also keen to galvanise interest in the predominately white world of classical music in others from a BAME background.

Talking about Chineke!, Chi-chi Nwanoku’s groundbreaking ensemble of young black and minority ethnic musicians, in whose debut concert he played, he said: “It’s so important because it’s really easy to be inspired by someone you can maybe relate with because they look like you or have a similar background and that’s what the orchestra is trying to do. For me, playing in the orchestra, I was one of the youngest and it was really inspiring. I have always wanted to inspire others.”

Kanneh-Mason, whose album includes Bob Marley and Leonard Cohen tracks alongside Shostakovich, has put his money where his mouth is, donating £3,000 to his old school, Trinity Catholic School in Nottingham, to ensure the future of cello teaching there. He is also London Music Masters’ junior ambassador, promoting opportunity and diversity in classical music.

There is little doubt his cause has been boosted by his own rise, capped by the cellist’s appearance at the royal wedding, which was watched by 18 million people in the UK alone. He played three tracks chosen by the couple while they signed the register off camera.

Meghan called him personally to ask him to perform after Prince Harry saw him play at an event in support of the Antiguan charity the Halo Foundation. He was told to expect a call from her, he said, “otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have picked up”.

As a result, he says he is now recognised in the street, “particularly if I’m carrying my cello”. He met the couple again at a Royal Variety performance last month.

“They were happy to see me again and enjoyed the performance and thanked me for performing in May,” he said “It was really nice to perform for them and this time they were able to watch it.”

For other teenagers, the burden of living up to a life-changing 12 months might prove difficult but Kanneh-Mason is unfazed and his ambitions for the future remain modest. “I am still a student [at the Royal Academy of Music],” he said. “I enjoy discovering lots of music and learning. I think it’s something that will never stop, that’s one of the exciting things about classical music.”