Striking the right note

She was set to be an Olympic sprinter, but a chance accident set Chi-chi Nwanoku on the path to become one of the world’s finest double bass players. She’s also a pioneer for change. Sue Herdman meets her to discover what that means for classical music.

Portraits: John Millar

May 2020: an orchestra takes the stage on television’s Britain’s Got Talent and blows the audience away. The performance – a medley segueing from Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra to Beyoncé’s Crazy in Love – is electrifying. But what also has the audience on its feet is the age of the players – just 11 to 22. To add to this they are majority Black and minority ethnic, part of the Chineke! Junior Orchestra. ‘And did you notice something else?’ asks the orchestra’s founder, Chi-chi Nwanoku. ‘There was no conductor. They were on their own. And there were no music stands. We took those elements away. It was a lesson in working together and trusting in each other.’ 

As a majority Black and ethnically diverse orchestra, those young people were also sending a powerful visual message to children of colour. As Nwanoku has said: ‘If even one Black or ethnically diverse child feels that their colour is getting in the way of their musical ambitions, then I hope to inspire them, give them a platform, and show them that music, of whatever kind, is for all people.’ 

Chineke! junior and senior orchestra performing in London

Nwanoku founded the Chineke! Foundation and its flagship ensemble – the ‘senior’ orchestra – in 2015. It was Europe’s first professional majority Black and ethnically diverse orchestra, created to support musicians of such heritage. She feels her whole career has been in preparation for Chineke! For over 30 years she has been at the forefront of the classical music world, playing with renowned ensembles – among them the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, which she co-founded – and teaching students at the Royal Academy of Music, where she is a professor. In 2017 she was awarded the OBE for services to music and the ABO (Association of British Orchestras) Award for ‘the most significant contribution to orchestral life in the UK’. 

Today we meet at her London home. A tiny, dynamic figure, she is just back from receiving her Covid booster, is primed for an afternoon of broadcasting and, somehow, is fitting in the hours for our interview and photoshoot. As she leans into her double bass with her bow, giving us a fast, playful, pitch-perfect rendition of Pop goes the Weasel, she fields questions. ‘Press my button when it comes to talking,’ she grins, ‘and I’m off.’ 

Chineke! junior and senior orchestra performing in London

BREAKING BOUNDARIES 

Born in London in 1956, Nwanoku was the first of five children of an Irish mother and Nigerian father. ‘Imagine what they went through to be together,’ she tells me, ‘when boarding houses had those signs: “No Blacks, no Dogs, no Irish”. At least, they said, they didn’t have a dog.’ The family were poor. The chances of one of the children becoming a star on the classical world circuit unlikely. But then Nwanoku likes a challenge. ‘I was a bright child, first in the queue for anything new and reading independently by three and a half, which was a surprise, later, to my primary school teachers; none of the other pupils were.’ Their presumption, she recalls, was that the only Black child in their class would be more likely to be trouble than a prodigy.

‘EVEN MY MOTHER WOULDN’T COME TO MY CONCERTS BECAUSE SHE FELT INTIMIDATED BY CLASSICAL MUSIC. WE HAVE TO CHANGE THIS – TO MAKE ALL FEEL WELCOME. THERE SHOULDN’T BE A HEAP OF RULES FOR AUDIENCES’ 

Nwanoku discovered music – specifically the piano – young, displaying immediate aptitude. She was also a gifted sprinter, training from the age of eight (‘I was either in school uniform or a tracksuit’). Aged 18, with aims for the 1976 Olympics, her chances were dashed by an accident on the football field. Her teachers, knowing her high drive had to be channelled into something demanding, pointed her to the double bass. It was twice her size and, she thought, too late to be starting on the instrument. She went from zero to Grade 7 in two years. 

While realising soaring success, Nwanoku has also seen elephants in the room. ‘First, I was in a minority within the environment – the only Black student at the Royal Academy of Music and onwards, always the only person of colour. I didn’t have a network to connect to. And, as a person of colour, it has never been enough to be just good. Any self- respecting parent of a Black or mixed-race child has to prepare them to strive. I would never turn up at a rehearsal less than concert ready, having learnt every note.’ 

Sheku Kanneh- Mason playing with Chineke!

In addition, Nwanoku knows her industry can feel elitist. ‘I was shocked when I first realised that it alienated people. Even my mother wouldn’t come to my concerts because she felt intimidated by classical music. We have to change this – to make all feel welcome. There shouldn’t be a heap of rules for audiences. After all, we are just entertainers.’ 

Stack such elements together and it’s no wonder many, particularly young people of colour, decide classical music is not for them. This is what Nwanoku is working to change. ‘Music,’ she says, ‘does not discriminate.’ Her spur for action came in 2014 on attending the London performance by the self-taught Kinshasa Symphony Orchestra – central Africa’s only such ensemble, and the world’s first all-Black one. Nwanoku was the only person of colour at the receptions before the performance. 

When the orchestra was joined at points by UK musicians, they were white. Where were the Black and ethnically diverse players? ‘I realised I could count the number I knew on one hand; there had to be more. I came out of the concert knowing I had work to do.’ The concept for Chineke! was born. The name came from the Nigerian Igbo ‘chi’, meaning ‘god’ – a guardian presence that guides from cradle to grave – and ‘neke’, meaning ‘creation’, the two summing up the spirit of good creation. 

DIVERSIFY AND UNIFY 

Nwanoku used her then 25-year experience of the industry – and considerable persuasive powers – to put out feelers. She found her musicians, among them a family called the Kanneh- Masons. In a two-hour phone call Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason told her how, at that time, her children felt they were working in a vacuum. ‘But because of Chineke!,’ says Nwanoku, ‘they then had a focus.’ Just a year later, the orchestra – 62 musicians representing 31 nationalities – performed for the first time, at London’s Southbank. ‘I didn’t know if that first performance would be our last,’ Nwanoku concedes. 

‘EVERYONE HAS A RELATIONSHIP WITH MUSIC; EVERY CHILD SHOULD BE ENCOURAGED TO PLAY’ 

It drew five-star reviews. And from the start it has ensured that, in each performance, a piece by a composer of ethnic origin is played. Recent research on the ABRSM (Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music) syllabus from Grade 1 to 8 music reveals that 98.8% of the 3,166 pieces on the latest exam syllabuses are written by white composers. Nwanoku wants to see Black figures previously in the shadows, such as composers Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, brought to the fore. 

Chineke! played Coleridge- Taylor at the first concert. ‘Before then,’ says Nwanoku, ‘not one of those 62 musicians had played a note of his music – yet such is its power, it became the earworm of the week in rehearsals.’ She sees it as vital for children of colour who like classical music, but can’t imagine being a part of it, to see musicians who look like them, playing music by such composers. ‘The message is: “you can be what you can see”.’ 

Chineke! junior and senior orchestra performing in London

It is important, she adds, that Chineke! is not seen purely as a Black orchestra. Its motto is ‘championing change and celebrating diversity in classical music’. While the first two Chineke! concerts were Black and ethnically diverse, now, she explains: ‘We ensure every hue is included. We are inclusive. We are an orchestra with a philosophy that wants to encourage change to happen. Diversity brings riches.’ Diversity – and music. View that 2020 junior ensemble’s television performance on Chineke!’s website. That is the power of playing music together, about which Nwanoku is evangelical. 

‘I’ve always known that music is about so much more than notes on a sheet of paper. Those dots are just the guidelines. What we do with those notes is about communication. Every child that takes up an instrument develops cognitive skills, learns to listen and persevere, gains confidence and coordination, and sees and feels the benefits of collaboration. That’s why private schools have flourishing music departments. They know it’s good for you. The trouble is, 93% of children in the UK go to state schools.’ 

She grew up in a state system that still championed music. ‘Everyone,’ she urges, ‘has a relationship with music; every child should be encouraged to play. Music as a school subject is not a soft option.’ She should know. Without her school nudging her towards music at a critical time – and without Nwanoku’s exceptional, personal drive in the face of multiple challenges – we wouldn’t have seen the inception of the trailblazing Chineke!. It’s time, as Nwanoku says, for change. 

With grants from the South West Area and The Arts Society Community Grants Awards, The Arts Society Teignbridge supported the visit of Chi-chi Nwanoku and members of Chineke! to Sheldon School last year.

SEE

Chineke! will be playing at the Royal Festival Hall, London on 28 April, Nottingham Trent University on 4 May and Queen Elizabeth Hall, London on 19 May. It also plays in community settings for those who are not regular visitors to traditional concert halls, and visits schools to perform and hold workshops. Find out more at chineke.org

JOIN

This feature appears in the spring 2022 edition of The Arts Society Magazine, available exclusively to Members and Supporters