The founder of Europe's first black and minority ethnic orchestra talks to Ivan Hewett about the challenges of building an ensemble from scratch
Almost two years ago, on
September 13 2015, something happened at London’s Royal Festival Hall
that was both ordinary and extraordinary. An orchestra dressed in sober
black filed on stage, followed by the conductor, and gave a spirited and
subtle performance. The critics were enraptured.
That’s the ordinary part. The extraordinary part was that
not a single face on the platform was white. This was the debut of
Europe’s first black and minority ethnic (BME) orchestra, Chineke! And
just to make the point that this was a historic moment, the first piece
on the programme was by a black composer: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, who
in his heyday rivalled Handel in popularity.
Now the
orchestra is well on the way to being an established part of the musical
scene. It has played several concerts at the Southbank, and St George’s
in Bristol, where it is a resident ensemble. It has a recording under
its belt, with another soon to come, has made an overseas tour and has
an office and a board of trustees. On August 30, it plays its first
Prom.
“I can’t believe we’ve got this far. I thought Chineke!
might be just one concert and then nothing,” says founder Chi-chi
Nwanoku, 61. Born to an Irish mother and a Nigerian father, she’s an
unstoppable, fizzing, passionate bundle of energy. She’s also one of
London’s best-known musicians. Anyone who goes regularly to concerts
will have seen her in the double-bass section, where her vigorous style
always gets noticed. She brought the eyes and ears of an expert to the
job of creating an orchestra.
It began four years ago
with a conversation with Ed Vaizey, who was Minister of Culture in David
Cameron’s government. “He said to me, ‘Why is it only you we ever see
on stage in orchestral concerts?’ and at first I didn’t know what he
meant,” says Nwanoku. “Then I realised he meant musicians of colour. I
had never really thought of myself in that way. I spend my whole life
surrounded by white people in orchestras, I defined myself by what I
did, not the colour of my skin. But of course he’s right. How often do
you see a black person in an orchestra? Almost never.”
The
conversation sowed a seed, but it wasn’t until the following year at a
concert in the Festival Hall that light dawned. “I was at a concert by
the Kinshasa Symphony Orchestra from the Congo,” says Nwanoku. “I
realised I had to do something. I talked about it to Ed Vaizey and he
suggested I create an all-black orchestra, but I said, ‘no, that’s too
exclusive’. I wanted it to be open to all musicians of colour.”
Creating
an orchestra from scratch is an immense task. You need an office, a
schedule, rehearsal venues, music, instruments, a battery of percussion…
Nwanoku started making phone calls to anyone who might be able to help:
the British Council, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the
Southbank Centre, the other London orchestras, conservatoires. Soon she
had a board of trustees, an office, and a tentative first date at the
Festival Hall.
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