Meet the woman behind the Chineke! Orchestra championing black and ethnically diverse musicians

Determined to make a difference she contacted music colleges, conservatoires and concert halls across the UK. “I wanted to shine a spotlight on all those musicians of colour that we don’t normally see,” she says. “I said, ‘we are going to create outstanding opportunities for black and ethnically diverse musicians so that they know they have a place in the classical music industry.’”

And she did. In 2015, she set up the Chineke! Foundation, which supports, inspires and encourages black and ethnically diverse classical musicians in the UK and Europe. At its heart are its two orchestras – the Chineke! Orchestra and Chineke! Junior Orchestra. The adult orchestra has performed in front of packed audiences including at the BBC Proms, the Lucerne Festival and the Lincoln Center in New York. And for Nwanoku, their debut at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall and the rehearsals leading up to it remain an abiding memory.

“The feeling of walking on stage for the first time and not being the odd one out was quite extraordinary,” she says. “It reminded me of our first day of rehearsals when we finally got together and I suddenly saw all these people for the first time, all shades of brown and black all the way up to white. Just seeing a flautist, or a cellist, or a violinist, who looked like me unpacking their instruments was something I’d never seen before.

“The feeling of walking into that room with 62 musicians of colour was quite overwhelming and moving. Often when I did a concert I wouldn’t just be the only person of colour on the stage I was the only person of colour in the whole auditorium, and that’s quite a lonely place. But in that rehearsal everyone belonged, no matter where they came from.”

As well as providing a platform for musicians of colour, Nwanoku is determined to champion black composers. “We are amplifying this music by playing and showcasing incredible works that can stand next to those by Beethoven and composers from the great canon. And I’m happy to say now that just about every other orchestra in the country has taken up that baton and is performing music by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Florence Price and William Grant Still.”

Classical music fans in Yorkshire will soon be able to listen to the acclaimed orchestra in person when it opens this year’s Harrogate Music Festival later this month. The concert features Coleridge-Taylor, dubbed the ‘Black Mahler’, and his spirited Novelletten, as well as Gustav Holst’s St Paul’s Suite, Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Oboe Concerto and Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony.

Nwanoku says audiences are in for a treat. “Apart from wonderful playing and dazzling music, if they walked in and sat down with their eyes closed and were asked to describe what they thought they would see they would be happily surprised. It’s a completely inclusive and diverse orchestra and that’s what they’re going to see.”

Nwanoiku’s own story is just as inspiring as the orchestra she founded. She grew up in Kent, the oldest of five children born to her Nigerian father and Irish mother. Her passion for music was stirred by the humble recorder. “I was six years old and the teacher said, ‘who wants to be in…’ and my hand was up before she finished the sentence. I had no idea what a recorder was but I knew I needed to play it,” she says. “I know people give the recorder a hard time but you can buy one for a couple of quid and [it] teaches you so much and every child should have access to that.”

At the age of seven she discovered the piano. She’d been playing with her neighbour Pamela when the sound of Pamela’s brother playing Boogie Woogie 12-bar blues stopped her in her tracks. “I ran into the room and wouldn’t leave until he showed me how to do it. And by the time I left the house I could play it,” she recalls.

Her parents saved up to pay for piano lessons. “My mother took a cleaning job in a posh boys boarding school so she could earn enough for me to have piano lessons, which was a huge sacrifice.”

It wasn’t until she was a teenager that she started playing the double bass, after being encouraged by her music teacher, and joined the school orchestra. “To be sitting there with a whole symphony of musicians around me and to be part of it was mind-blowing. That was it – I was a bass player.”

She believes studying music has huge benefits. “Of course not every child is going to end up a classical or professional musician, but you’re learning critical thinking and cognitive development. You learn so much about coordination, about listening, about teamwork, attention to detail, breathing, thinking and feeling. What other subject teaches you all those things?” And Nwanoku hopes her orchestra continues to inspire both audiences and musicians.

“I’ve played in a lot of big concert halls around the world, but to walk on with the Chineke! Orchestra always gives me a buzz and it’s very moving when you see the reaction of the audience…I think we’ve opened people’s eyes." Grand Opening Concert: Chineke! Orchestra, Harrogate Royal Hall, Thursday, June 29, 7.30pm. To book, call 01423 562 303 or visit harrogateinternationalfestivals.com