00:00Classical music is changing.
00:04The Chineke Orchestra is bringing diversity to the concert hall with international acclaim.
00:12Their scholarships, network, and Chineke Orchestra are powerful tools on this quest,
00:17with non-white musicians still underrepresented in the world of classical music.
00:23We really just wanted to make classical music, but weren't previously given the opportunity.
00:31I would say in general, a person of color has a lot more difficulty getting into anything.
00:39Playing with people like me, it was just empowering.
00:44One thing that Chineke stands for is diversity.
00:49Double bassist Chi-Chi Nwanoku, who has Irish-Nigerian roots, founded Chineke Orchestra in London in 2015.
00:57She has been part of the classical music world for decades.
01:01Here, musicians of color are still a minority.
01:04I decided, well, I'm going to look for people.
01:08Because so many people did say, it's not your sort of music,
01:12and any black people who play classical music, they're not very good.
01:16And so they were very confident with this.
01:18So I thought, I have to find out for myself.
01:22And the more I looked, the more I found, the well of talent runs deep.
01:35American conductor Kazim Abdullah has worked with many famous orchestras around the world.
01:41This is the first time he's rehearsed and performed with the Chineke Orchestra.
01:46He says it's a uniquely beautiful experience.
01:52Hopefully this new generation that's coming up will realize the importance
01:56of making sure that the arts and music is really accessible to everyone.
02:01And I think Chineke, it makes people realize,
02:03ah, I see people playing the violin, the cello, all these instruments,
02:07in a really high-level professional way.
02:10And so that's what I think what Chineke does best.
02:19Some musicians who started out in the Chineke Orchestra have become sought-after soloists,
02:24like British cellist Sheku Kanemason and his sister, pianist Aista Kanemason.
02:34I mean, I'm always sad when people move on,
02:37especially enormous talent like this, but they sit on our shoulders,
02:43and we sit on their shoulders.
02:45It's, you know, we support each other.
02:54South African cellist Abel Salaucho also started his career with the Chineke Orchestra.
03:00Today he's a globally recognized soloist and composer.
03:04He still feels deeply connected to the Chineke Orchestra.
03:15I'm a cellist from South Africa.
03:18There's probably another cellist in the group from another country,
03:22you know, with a totally different perspective.
03:24You know, our color doesn't make us have the same ideology, simply.
03:29So we're all exploring ourselves, and within speaking to each other and playing with each other,
03:35we find answers of what we want to be in the society.
03:41Chineke Orchestra plays about 35 concerts in Europe and the United States each year.
03:48The musicians mainly perform compositions by multi-ethnic composers,
03:53like this piece from 1903 by British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor,
03:58whose father was from Sierra Leone.
04:08We are not a niche. We're not niching at all.
04:10What we're doing is amplifying what is already there.
04:14We're playing music by Elgar, Brahms, Beethoven, Dvorak, Sibelius, etc.
04:22side by side with their black counterparts.
04:29The Chineke Orchestra encourages young musicians of all ethnic and cultural backgrounds
04:34to enter the world of classical music,
04:37and their concert hall audiences are every bit as diverse.
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