Classical Music
July 2019
Changing the record
Inside Chineke! Orchestra
Sergio Mims writes:
This month the UK based publication Classical Music has a detailed cover story profile of the Chineke! Orchestra
From the longer article:
"In
its four years of existence, Chineke!, Europe’s first majority black
and minority ethnic (BME) orchestra has transformed the attitude of the
classical music business towards race, diversity and inclusion. ‘Before
Chineke! there was nothing like it,’ says founder Chi-chi Nwanoku OBE.
‘Today, people of colour are acceptable in the industry, whereas the
establishment used to say classical music is not for people like you.’
After
what she calls her ‘lightbulb moment’ (when she saw a well-known white
musician talking to BBC cameras at a concert of the Kinshasa Orchestra
to which she had not even been invited) she realised it was time for BME
musicians to tell their own story. The next day she was on the phone to
musical institutions and musicians around the world establishing a
group which today has over 80 members from over 30 countries.
Chi-chi
has also been working hard to change the demographic of audiences,
which has been key to Chineke!’s social mission from its very first
concert at the Royal Festival Hall in 2015. ‘I looked out and it was
like the London I had lived in. There were people of all ages and
ethnicities, people who I know had never been to a concert, as they’d
been told this was not a place for people like them. And what makes me
most happy is that they are now going back again and again, whether we
are playing or not"
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