Page 30 - Powerlist 2019 - Digital Edition

Profiles

NEW Chi-Chi Nwanoku
2019
Founder, Chineke! Foundation

From the 100m sprint to a career as a world-class bassist,
Chi-Chi’s career trajectory has been stellar – and certainly
out of the ordinary.
The eldest of five children born to Nigerian and Irish
parents, her talent for music became apparent at the age of
seven when a neighbour taught her to play the piano. But
at the age of eight she was spotted by an athletics coach
and trained as a 100m sprinter, competing at national level
and aiming to qualify for the 1976 Olympics before being
forced to quit at 18 because of a serious knee injury.
It was then that she took up the double bass, going on to
study at the Royal Academy of Music and with acclaimed
Italian bassist Franco Petracchi in Rome before finding
herself in demand internationally.
Chi-Chi has had a broad career performing and
recording in a diversity of styles from authentic baroque
through to 21st-century commissions, with many of
Europe’s leading chamber orchestras and ensembles.
In 2015, she founded and remains artistic and executive
director of the Chineke! Foundation, which supports,
inspires and encourages BAME classical musicians in the
UK and Europe. Its two orchestras, the Chineke! Orchestra
and the Chineke! Junior Orchestra, champion change
and celebrate diversity in the classical music industry.
Teenage solo cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason – who played
at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle – is an
alumnus of both orchestras.
In 2012, British film-maker Barrie Gavin directed a
documentary about Chi-Chi’s career, Tales from the
Bass Line.
& Design
Chi-chi is a trustee of the National Youth Orchestra
of Great Britain and a council member of the Royal
Philharmonic Society. She was awarded an MBE for
services to music in the 2001 Queen’s Birthday Honours
and an OBE in 2017. This February she appeared on the
prestigious BBC Radio 4 series Desert Island Discs.

Arts, Fashion

26 Powerlist 2019