MEET Chineke! - Europe's first black professional orchestra

The Chineke! Orchestra and Foundation is the brainchild of renowned British double bass player Chi-chi Nwanoku MBE, who co-founded the Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment and serves as Professor of Double Bass Historical Studies at the Royal Academy of Music.

It was Nwanoku who chose the ensemble’s name (pronounced CHI-neh-keh), which comes from the Igbo tribe in south-eastern Nigeria. Meaning ‘spirit of creation’, the word is frequently used as an exclamation of good tidings among Igbo people (‘Chineke! Amazing!), hence the exclamation mark in the title.

Nwanoku, the daughter of an Igbo father and an Irish mother, grew up in Kent in a town where hers was the only black family. ‘I’ve always felt as though I completely belong to the country and society in which I live,’ she says, ‘and I’ve never gone through my life feeling like I’m a token person of colour. I wasn’t brought up to be a statistic – I was brought up to be who I am, and being mixed race is not part of my agenda.

‘But it is clear to me that there are many reasons why people like me, people of colour, are not coming through, why they’re so very underrpresented in the arts in this country. And I know for a fact it’s not due to lack of talent.’

Chineke! is a conscious effort to redress the balance in classical music as far as race is concerned, both in the UK and across Europe. Nwanoku recruited the members of her new 60-piece ensemble (led by American violinist Tai Murray and conducted by black British conductor Wayne Marshall) by mining her impressive Rolodex of musician contacts for recommendations of professional musicians from black and minority ethnic (BME) backgrounds.

'I want the Chineke! orchestra to be radical and to affect real systemic change'

‘But I’m not launching this orchestra to create jobs,’ says Nwanoku. ‘It’s more politically motivated. People of colour are used to being written out of history, and to having other people telling our stories for us: portraying us as poor black people being helped out by white people who take all the credit. That’s what we have to work our way out of. I want the Chineke! orchestra to be radical and to affect real systemic change by levelling the playing field. I want to change people’s perceptions by having an orchestra of BME musicians visibly playing at the very highest level.'

The public’s reaction to news of the orchestra’s launch has been mainly positive, according to Nwanoku – yet a ‘small minority’ of people have expressed misgivings, including some of the players who were asked to participate.

‘There are players who have decided not to play in this concert because they fear a backlash,’ Nwanoku says. ‘I’ve also had comments from white orchestral players who have asked whether selecting players based on their skin colour is racist. It’s important that people feel able to ask that question. But I ask them – when they see an all-white ensemble playing, do they ask the same question then? Of course, the answer’s no. It’s because we’ve been trained to expect an all-white ensemble. And I want to change those perceptions.

'Changing perceptions is so important'
‘Greater diversity is always going to make the arts stronger and broader, more "for everyone". We live in the world where people are constantly up against each other and there’s so much fear. Too often, people in this country look at a group of people of colour standing together and think: “That’s trouble”. Changing perceptions is so important. And what better way to do it than through music – wonderful music?’

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For more information about the Chineke! Orchestra and Foundation [including how to get involved], visit chineke.org.