Chineke! Orchestra

An ex-sprinter and half the size of her double bass, Chi-chi Nwanoku has gained a reputation as one of the finest exponents of her instrument today.

The eldest of five children from Nigerian and Irish parents, Chi-chi was seven when she discovered the piano at a neighbour’s. She returned to their house daily to play until the neighbours got so fed up they wheeled the piano up the road and gave it to her! Meanwhile, she was spotted by an athletics coach and trained as a 100-metre sprinter, eventually competing at National level. This 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 the Founder, Artistic and Executive Director of the Chineke! Foundation, which supports, inspires and encourages Black, Asian and ethnically diverse classical musicians working in the UK and Europe. The Chineke! Foundation celebrates diversity in the classical music industry through its two orchestras, the Chineke! Orchestra and Chineke! Junior Orchestra, as well as its educational and Community engagement work. Ultimately, the Chineke! Foundation aims to give Black, Asian and ethnically diverse classical musicians a platform on which to excel, and by such methods increase the representation of Asian, Black and ethnically diverse musicians in British and European orchestras.

Chi-chi was a founder member of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and held the position of Principal double bass there for 30 years. She is Professor of Double Bass Historical Studies at the Royal Academy of Music, where she was made a Fellow in 1998.

Chi-chi’s range of musical interests have resulted in a broad career performing and recording in a diversity of styles from authentic baroque through to 21st century and new commissions, with many of Europe’s leading chamber orchestras and ensembles. Some of her notable chamber recordings include Schubert’s Trout Quintet (recorded three times), and Octet, Beethoven Septet, Hummel Piano quintet and Boccherini Sonatas. Her solo recording of Dittersdorf and Vanhal Concertos with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra (Hyperion) received critical acclaim.

In 2012 Barrie Gavin directed a documentary film about Chi-chi’s career, called Tales from the Bass Line.

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 presented a two-part series for BBC Radio 4 in 2015 which brought to life the stories and music of black composers and musicians from the 18th century, whose vivid presence on the classical music scene have slipped through the net. Chi-chi was also the ‘mentor’ for the 2016 BBC 4 TV series All Together Now, the Great Orchestra Challenge. Chi-chi is featured in the BBC Radio 4 series Only Artists, and was Kirsty Young’s guest on BBC Radio 4, Desert Island Discs in February 2018. Beginning Sunday, October 4, 2020, 9pm-10pm, Chi-chi will present Chi-chi’s Classical Champions, a 6-part series for Classic FM radio which will shine the spotlight on Black, Asian & ethnically diverse composers and performers – those who have enjoyed success, as well as those yet to receive recognition.

Chi-chi is a trustee of the London Music Fund, Tertis Foundation a Council Member of the Royal Philharmonic Society. She served on the board of the Association of British Orchestras (ABO) from 2008–13 and National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain 2000-18. She created the ABO/RPS Salomon Prize, which celebrates the ‘unsung heroes’ working in the ranks of British orchestras.

In 2022 Chi-chi was awarded the CBE for Services to Music & Diversity in the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Birthday Honours, the OBE in 2017 and the MBE in 2001. She was one of the 100 – Happy List in the Independent on Sunday 2011. In 2016 she was appointed as an Honorary Fellow of Trinity Laban Conservatoire in recognition of her ‘pioneering contribution to music, in particular the inspiration she provides, the commitment she has shown, and the contribution she has made to addressing inequalities within classical music in the UK, most recently through the Chineke! Foundation’. Chi-chi is an Ambassador for the London Music Fund.

Chi-chi was awarded the Black British Business Awards, Person of the Year 2016 and was the recipient of the ABO Award 2017, which is awarded for ‘the most important contribution to the orchestral life of the UK’. She was named in the Top 10 of the BBC Woman’s Hour, Women in Music Power List 2018 and, in 2018, was awarded the inaugural Commonwealth Cultural Enterprise Award for Women in the Arts at the Commonwealth Business Women’s Awards. Also in 2018 Chi-chi was made an Honorary Doctor Music at the University of Chichester. She is featured in the Royal Academy of Music exhibition ‘Hitting the Right Note: Amazing Women of the Academy’. She was awarded the Creative Industries Award at the Variety Catherine Awards 2018 and shortlisted for the Groucho Maverick Award. Chi-chi was voted to the ‘Powerlist of Britain’s 100 Most Influential Black People 2019.

Elena Urioste is a musician, yogi, writer, and entrepreneur, as well as a lover of nature, food, animals, and connecting with other human beings.

As a violinist, Elena has given acclaimed performances as soloist with major orchestras throughout the United States, including the Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Minnesota Orchestras; the New York, Los Angeles, and Buffalo Philharmonics; the Boston Pops; and the Chicago, Boston, Dallas, San Francisco, San Diego, National, Atlanta, Baltimore, and Detroit Symphony Orchestras, among many others. Abroad, Elena has appeared with the London Philharmonic, Hallé, Philharmonia, CBSO, Orchestra of Opera North, and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestras; the BBC Symphony, Philharmonic, Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and National Orchestra of Wales; as well as the Chineke! Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lille, Edmonton Symphony, Würzburg Philharmonic, and Hungary’s Orchestra Dohnányi Budafok and MAV Orchestras. She has collaborated with celebrated conductors Sir Mark Elder, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Vasily Petrenko, Christoph Eschenbach, Robert Spano, Karina Canellakis, and Gábor Takács-Nagy. She has performed as a featured soloist in Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, the Concertgebouw, and the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, and has given recitals at the Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Kennedy Center, Konzerthaus Berlin, Sage Gateshead, Bayerischer Rudfunk Munich, and Mondavi Center. Elena is a former BBC New Generation Artist (2012-14) and has been featured on the covers of Strings, Symphony, and BBC Music magazines.

Recent musical highlights include the release of two new studio albums with pianist Tom Poster, THE JUKEBOX ALBUM and From Brighton to Brooklyn, released on Orchid Classics and Chandos Records, respectively; critically acclaimed debuts with the Dallas and San Diego Symphony Orchestras and with the CBSO at the BBC Proms; a residency at the Aldeburgh Festival; and a Norwegian debut at the Bergen International Music Festival. 2022 saw the release of two new studio albums for the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective: a disc of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Nonet, Piano Trio, and Piano Quintet; and an album of lesser-known chamber works by Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn, both for Chandos Records. Elena also features as soloist on Max Richter’s The New Four Seasons: Vivaldi Recomposed, recorded on period instruments; and in Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Violin Concerto and Romance, to be released on Chineke! Records this autumn.

An avid chamber musician, Elena is the founder and Artistic Director of Chamber Music by the Sea, an annual festival on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. She has been a featured artist at the Marlboro, Ravinia, La Jolla, Bridgehampton, Moab, and Sarasota Music Festivals, as well as Open Chamber Music at Prussia Cove, the Cheltenham Music Festival, Switzerland’s Sion-Valais International Music Festival, and the Verbier Festival’s winter residency at Schloss Elmau. Elena has collaborated with luminaries such as Mitsuko Uchida, Kim Kashkashian, and members of the Guarneri Quartet, and performs extensively in recital with pianists Tom Poster and Michael Brown. She is the co-director of the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, appointed Associate Ensemble at Wigmore Hall in 2020.

Elena is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and The Juilliard School. Notable teachers and mentors include Joseph Silverstein, David Cerone, Ida Kavafian, Pamela Frank, Claude Frank, Choong-Jin Chang, Soovin Kim, and Ferenc Rados. The outstanding instruments being used by Elena are an Alessandro Gagliano violin, Naples c. 1706, and a Nicolas Kittel bow, both on generous extended loan from the private collection of Dr. Charles E. King through the Stradivari Society of Chicago.

Elena has been practicing yoga since 2009 and received her RYT-200 hour certification from the Kripalu Center in June 2019. She is the co-founder of Intermission, a program that combines music, movement, and mindfulness, aiming to make music-making a healthier, more holistic practice for students and professionals alike through yoga and meditation.

Miscellaneous accomplishments include first prizes at the Sphinx and Sion International Violin Competitions; an inaugural Sphinx Medal of Excellence presented by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor (they immediately bonded over their matching red formalwear); a 2022 BBC Music Magazine Award for THE JUKEBOX ALBUM; spreads in Latina and La Revista Mujer magazines; a 2020 Royal Philharmonic Society “Inspiration Award” and a 2021 RPS Enterprise Fund Trailblazer Grant for her #UriPosteJukeBox project with Tom Poster; and the 2015 Brooklyn Film Festival’s Audience Choice and Best Original Score awards for But Not For Me, the independent feature film in which Elena acted as the lead female role. Writing is another passion for Elena — you can find many of her musings on her website’s blog.

In addition to her love for hiking in lush forests, swimming in the ocean, and marveling at the stars, Elena’s heart melts around corgis, vibrant vegetarian and southern Italian cooking, and beautifully crafted literature. She enjoys knitting the occasional scarf to keep her fingers busy on airplanes. Finally, Elena believes that we should all strive to spend less time looking at screens, that Oxford commas should be required, and that people should clap whenever they feel moved to do so during concerts.