Chineke! Community Outreach in Rotterdam 2017 (2017) by Gaby Jongenelen FotografieChineke!
Community Engagement
Alongside the main orchestral concert calendar, Chineke! Orchestra performs in community settings across the UK and abroad, bringing the joy of classical music directly to audiences in their respective neighbourhoods.
Bristol Malcom X Centre and Borderlands Bristol (2017) by Chineke! FoundationChineke!
Those who are not regular visitors to traditional concert halls have the chance to experience high quality, thrilling performances and workshops delivered by an ensemble of majority Black, Asian and Ethnically Diverse musicians.
Chineke! performing at Borderlands Bristol, a charity that has been supporting refugees, asylum seekers and those with insecure immigration status.
Chineke!'s Learning and Participation Manager Ishani O'Connor (2020-10) by Ishani O'ConnorChineke!
Learning & Participation Manager - Ishani O'Connor
An introduction to Chineke!'s educational outreach programmes.
Chineke! Community Outreach in Rotterdam 2017 (2017) by Gaby Jongenelen FotografieChineke!
Founder Chi-chi Nwanoku OBE and Chineke! violinist Miles Brett working with students in Rotterdam at the SKVR Van Eijckschool in 2017
Musicians from Chineke! Orchestra work with Southampton Music Hub (2017-11-23) by Matthew BrombleyChineke!
Chineke! at Southampton Music Hub
In November 2017 members the Chineke! Orchestra joined 300 young musicians from primary schools in Southampton. Together they performed in an inspiring workshop and concert.
Musicians from Chineke! Orchestra work with Southampton Music Hub (2017-11-23) by Matthew BrombleyChineke!
The students came from Bevois Town, Shirley Warren and St Johns primary schools in Southampton
Musicians from Chineke! Orchestra work with Southampton Music Hub (2017-11-23) by Matthew BrombleyChineke!
Primary school violinists from Southampton Music Hub
Errollyn Wallen composition workshop (2019) by NMC RecordingsChineke!
Composition workshop with Errollyn Wallen CBE
In March 2019 Chineke! Orchestra delivered a series of composition workshops at Swanlea School, Whitechapel, led by world-renowned composer Errollyn Wallen CBE. Swanlea School is a large comprehensive school in Tower Hamlets, one of London’s most diverse boroughs. During the 3-day programme, Errollyn and the Chineke! musicians worked with 40 students aged 12 - 16.
Errollyn Wallen composition workshop (2019) by NMC RecordingsChineke!
After an introduction to composition, students were split into 5 groups. A musician from Chineke! guided each group in improvisation and different forms of notation, including traditional notation and graphic scores, encouraging the students to explore and experiment with their instruments. Each group created an original piece of music which they performed with the Chineke! musicians in a concert for their families, pupils and teachers.
Errollyn Wallen composition workshop (2019) by NMC RecordingsChineke!
Errollyn Wallen CBE working with students at Swanlea School
Chineke! Orchestra’s recent album The Spark Catchers, produced by NMC Records, featured Errollyn Wallen’s Concerto Grosso, as well as works by several other Black composers.
Bristol Malcom X Centre and Borderlands Bristol (2017) by Chineke! FoundationChineke!
Malcom X Centre
In May 2019 Chineke! Orchestra performed at the Malcolm X Centre in St Pauls, Bristol. Overlooked by the hall’s iconic Africa mural, they performed Britten’s Simple Symphony, Holst’s St Paul’s Suite, and James B. Wilson's Free-man.
Bristol Malcom X Centre and Borderlands Bristol (2017) by Chineke! FoundationChineke!
About "Free Man"
James B. Wilson was commissioned by Chineke! to compose a piece in commemoration of the 1963 Bristol Bus Boycott. Protesters boycotted the Bristol Omnibus Company for 4 months in 1963 in protest of its refusal to employ Black or Asian drivers or conductors. It drew national attention to racial discrimination in Britain and was influential in the passing of the Race Relations Acts of 1965 and 1968.
"Free-man opens with a solitary voice, a question, a statement of intent which is quickly answered by an urgent tremolo in the strings,” says Wilson.
“There is a sense of struggle in the music but also the joy of a call to freedom.”
Elizabeth Boyce
