Chineke!<\/a> was established in 2015 by world-renowned double-bassist Chi-chi Nwanoku OBE<\/a>. Nwanoku spent more than three decades playing in professional orchestras and philharmonics internationally where she recognised the need to provide career opportunities to young Black and minority ethnic musicians across Europe. Chineke Is from the Ibo language and means \u2018the spirit of great creation\u2019.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The orchestra is now in residence at St George\u2019s Bristol and regularly plays in the city. In fact, Chineke! had just played St George\u2019s the night before, with elder Paul Stephenson OBE in attendance. People of my parents\u2019 generation quickly hail Dr. Stephenson as a dear British civil rights leader. Along with compatriots Audley Evans, Roy Hackett<\/a>, Prince Brown and Owen Henry, Stephenson \u2018broke\u2019 the \u2018colour bar\u2019 at the Bristol Omnibus Company in 1963 by boycotting jobs until everybody had an equal chance at every position.<\/p>\n Young composer and pianist James B. Wilson was commissioned by Chineke! to write a piece of music in response to this legacy. He was in the audience at St George\u2019s as well, when Free-man made its\u2019 world premiere in the place that Nwanoku describes as the orchestra\u2019s second city. It played again for us at the Malcolm X Centre.<\/p>\n \u201cFree-man opens with a solitary voice, a question, a statement of intent which is quickly answered by an urgent tremolo in the strings,\u201d says Wilson, describing his composition.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a sense of struggle in the music but also the joy of a call to freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n When I asked him about the process of being commissioned to respond to a topic (no less, a person who will see the work) Wilson said he read Stephenson\u2019s biography, spent a lot of time researching and watched everything he could find about the Bristol bus boycotts.<\/p>\n \u201cAs musicians and composers, we are storytellers,\u201d he continued, \u201ca lot happens in your subconscious that you can\u2019t quite put into words. At some point you have to switch it all off and then let your creativity take over\u201d.<\/p>\n The afternoon ended with a word from Bristol\u2019s Deputy Mayor Asher Craig<\/a>. Acknowledging Chi Chi\u2019s work as a leader, she also commended Dr. Marie-Annick Gournet, Trustee at St George\u2019s, whose presence on the board made the partnership and community connection with Chineke! possible.<\/p>\n BBC Proms: Chineke!: the best bits<\/b><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/mogulmagazine.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/chineke-1-e1554996344636-300x170.jpg\")
<\/p>\nphoto credit: chineke.org<\/em><\/h6>\n