Founded in 2015, the Chineke! Foundation provides opportunities for established and emerging Black and ethnically diverse classical musicians. Its aims are to celebrate diversity, and to champion change. Since 2015, the Chineke! Orchestra has taken the musical world by storm, with its exhilarating energy, its infectious enthusiasm, and its gathering of exceptional musicians from across the UK and Europe.

Showcasing the orchestra’s finest musicians, the Chineke! Chamber Ensemble brings together four brilliant but intimate works by Black and Indigenous musicians, from William Grant Still’s celebration of African-American experience to the blues energy of young US composer Valerie Coleman. The Chineke! musicians give premieres of two brilliant new works by Australian Aboriginal composers. Deborah Cheetham weaves together threads of imagery and history in her tapestry-inspired Ngarrgooroon, while William Barton draws on his virtuosity as a didgeridoo player in his The Rising of Mother Country.

The warmth and touching melody of Mendelssohn’s Piano Sextet, effectively a chamber concerto for piano and strings written when he was just 15, brings the concert to an uplifting close.

Part of the UK/Australia Season 2021-22, a joint initiative of the British Council and Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, supported by the Australian Government through the Australian Cultural Diplomacy Grants Program and the British Council.