By Miss Goodsell, Director of Music

A group of music scholars, GCSE and A level students went to see Chineke Orchestra’s ‘Phenomenal Women’ concert at the Southbank Centre.

The concert was a chance to see performances of works by black female composers. The founder of the orchestra, Chi-chi Nwanoku, who also plays double bass in the group, spoke about how the concert was a personal mission of hers to bring these composers to a wider audience. The opening piece ‘Jupiter’s fairground’ by Eleanor Alberga is a musical depiction of the ancient god Jupiter ‘viewing the world and humanity, looking down on his dominion from on high with a mixture of pride and amusement.’ Valerie Coleman’s ‘Phenomenal Women’ was a depiction in 5 movements of women who have changed ‘the fabric of the we way we look [at] life’. Movements included references to Maya Angelou, Katherine Johnson, Serena Williams, Michelle Obama and Claressa Shields. The 4th movement, Caravan, was an emotional tribute to those migrant mothers separated from their children at the US border. The second half of the concert was the British premiere of Florence Price’s Symphony No. 4. This work was only discovered in 2009 when renovation works were undertaken at a house in Chicago. The piece hugely engaged the students with its integration of spirituals into the orchestral sound. The students were also  delighted to meet the soloists during the interval.