The Kanneh-Mason siblings — Isata, Braimah, Sheku, Konya, Jeneba, Aminata, and Mariatu — prove that maybe talent is simply in our DNA. If you harness it, of course.

​Growing up in Nottingham, U.K., their parents, Kadiatu “Kadie” Kanneh and Stuart Mason, signed them up for everything: from cricket, soccer, and tennis, to gymnastics and karate. However, it was music that stuck.

While the couple weren’t professional musicians, after witnessing their kids thrive with music, they told them: if they wanted music to be their life, they would have to work and work hard.

​"They told us this is what they wanted to do. So then, we had to be honest to say, 'Well, if this is what you want to do, then you have to work hard,'" Kadie said. "Because the reality is, if you want to be successful at anything, you have to go for it," said to “60 Minutes.”

​The eldest, pianist Isata, now 29, began lessons at 6. As more children were brought into the mix, the younger siblings copied the older ones: Braimah, 28, chose the violin; Sheku, 26, picked the cello, partly because he wanted a bigger instrument than his brother’s. The younger siblings—Konya, 25, Jeneba, 23, Aminata, 20, and Mariatu, 16 —  also opted for piano, violin, or cello.

Practice was a grind. On top of school and hours spent in rehearsals through the week, the siblings spent a two-hour trip (each way) on Saturdays traveling to the junior program at London’s Royal Academy of Music to study.

At home, the siblings ran their own “Sunday concerts,” performing for each other and trading blunt feedback to toughen their nerves for real stages. Though it was always all love.

"Because our environment was so intensely musical and loving and supportive, it was kind of bound to happen in one way or another, as in us feeling like we could achieve what we have achieved, on our instruments," Jeneba said to the outlet.

The Kanneh-Masons remained focused on classical music, even when TV opportunities came with pressure to go pop. In 2015, they only agreed to appear on “Britain’s Got Talent” if they could stay true to themselves.

​Sheku became the first cellist to reach the U.K. Top 10 album chart and performed at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s 2018 wedding, and he’ll soon join an artist-in-residence role with the New York Philharmonic.

​Though music is the undeniable glue that binds the siblings, they’re unafraid to carve out an identity separate from the family septet. Some siblings have branched out into other fields. Konya, for example, is now writing fiction, and Aminata even dipped her toe into acting.

​When it comes to making that leap, Isata summed it up best: “I think it's something that probably gets easier as you get older, because you start to just get more confidence and more knowledge about what kind of things you want to be doing. Musically, I think that gets easier. I mean, we play different instruments. We're different ages. We play a different repertoire.”

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