Chi-chi Nwanoku MBE

An ex-sprinter and half the size of her double bass, Chi-chi has gained a reputation as one of the finest exponents of her instrument today. A promising athletics career ended abruptly due to a knee injury aged 18, which is when (and why) she took up the double bass and actively pursued a career in music. She studied at the Royal Academy of Music and with Franco Petracchi in Rome, and soon found herself in demand internationally.

Chi-chi is Principal Double Bassist and co-founder of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. She is Professor of Double Bass Historical Studies at the Royal Academy of Music, and was made a Fellow there in 1998.

As a broadcaster, Chi-chi presented BBC Radio 3 Requests for four years, she guests for the TV Proms and was Jury member of BBC 2 TV Classical Star. She devised and presented the two-part series for BBC Radio 4 ‘In Search of the Black Mozart’ which brings to life the stories and music of black composers and musicians from the eighteenth century, whose vivid presence on the classical music scene have slipped through the net!

She has created Chineke!, Europe’s first black & minority ethnic orchestra & junior orchestra launching at the Southbank Centre on 13th  September! 2015. Chi-chi was awarded an MBE for services to Music in the 2001 Queen’s Birthday honours.