Founded in 2015 by the pioneering double bass player Chi-chi Nwanoku, OBE, the Orchestra provides career opportunities for Black and ethnically diverse classical performers in the UK and Europe. As they propel forward their core mission to champion change and celebrate diversity in classical music, the Orchestra has become the first professional majority Black and Asian orchestra in Europe.

The Orchestra will share the stage with select members of Boston BEAM (Bridge to Equity and Achievement in Music), a citywide collective that supports and sustains musical excellence among young musicians of underrepresented populations who aspire to careers in classical music professions.

The program opens with Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's haunting 1909 Othello suite, before pivoting to the joyous and colorful atmosphere conjured by pianist and composer Stewart Goodyear in his Callaloo, a Caribbean suite for piano and orchestra. The performance ends with Florence Price’s lively and groundbreaking  Symphony No. 1, infused with Juba dance motifs and other allusions to Americana.

The (London) Times knows, “there’s nothing like a Chineke! Orchestra concert for generating that party spirit. The nights always end with whistling and whooping. It’s music played with a passion and joy that freely radiates.”