Chi-Chi Nwanoku
*Chi-Chi Nwanoku was born on this date in 1956. She is a Black British double bassist and Historical Double Bass Studies professor.
Chinyere Adah "Chi-Chi" Nwanoku was born in Fulham, London, and is of Nigerian and Irish descent. She is the oldest of her parents' five children, Dr. Michael Nwanoku and his wife Margaret (née Hevey). Nwanoku's mother was disowned by her parents due to having an interracial relationship. However, Margaret's mother secretly traveled to London three months after the birth of Nwanoku. Before reaching school age, she lived in Imo State, Nigeria, where her family went for two years. Nwanoku attended Kendrick Girls' Grammar School in Reading, Berkshire.
At age seven, she began her education as a classical musician, first piano, and at 18, bass. Nwanoku studied at the Royal Academy of Music while training as a 100-meter sprinter but had to end her athletic career following a knee injury. She is the founder of the Chineke! Orchestra, Europe's first classical orchestra made up of a majority of African and ethnically diverse musicians, with whom she regularly performs.
The orchestra, comprised of 62 musicians representing 31 different nationalities, first performed in 2015 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and in addition to her work with the Chineke! Orchestra, Nwanoku has worked as principal double bass of the ensemble Endymion, the London Mozart Players, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the English Baroque Soloists, the London Classical Players, and the Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique. Her academic appointments include Professor of Double Bass at the Royal Academy of Music and a Visiting Fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge.
Besides playing and teaching bass, she has been active as a broadcaster, as in BBC Radio 3 Requests and in BBC TV. In 2015, Nwanoku presented In Search of the Black Mozart, featuring the lives and careers of Black classical composers and performers from the 18th century, including Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Ignatius Sancho, and George Bridgetower. She has also presented an episode of the Sky Arts TV series Passions on the life and work of British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. Other positions Nwanoku holds include being a former board member of the National Youth Orchestra, Tertis Foundation, London Music Fund, Royal Philharmonic Society (Council), and the Association of British Orchestras board. She is also a former Patron of Music Preserved and is a current Patron of the Cherubim Trust.
Nwanoku was a guest on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs 2018. In 2019, Nwanoku opened the new site of Hackney New Primary School, a specialist music school for children. She presented a six-part radio show on Classic FM in 2020, highlighting the music of contemporary and historical composers of Black, Asian, and ethnically diverse heritage. A second series was in 2021. In 2023, Nwanoku was the guest on the BBC Radio 4 program Great Lives; her choice was Jessye Norman. Nwanoku is based in London and has two children (Jacob and Phoebe) and three grandchildren (Maya, Ralph, and Sergi).
Nwanoku has been suspended from her role with Chineke as of December 2024 due to allegations of bullying and other HR issues. Nwanoku was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2001 Birthday Honors for services to music, Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2017 Birthday Honors for services to music, and Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2022 Birthday Honors for services to music and diversity. Additionally, she was an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music and Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music.
In 2023, she was an Honorary Bencher of the Middle Temple and an Honorary Doctor of Music at Cambridge University and the University of Kent. In 2018, the BBC Woman's Hour listed Nwanoku as one of the world's most powerful women in music, and she has also been listed in the 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 Powerlist of the most influential Black Britons of the year.
