God, the creator of the universe and goodness: that and no less is the meaning of ‘Chineke’ in the Igbo language of Nigeria. The Chineke! Orchestra is Europe’s first professional symphony orchestra with a majority of Black and ethnically diverse musicians. It was founded in 2015 and has taken international concert stages by storm. Now they are visiting Vienna for the first time. The evening begins with the liturgical and ecstatic sounds of the energetic Four Black American Dances by the young composer Carlos Simon. The core of the concert is Symphony No. 1 in E Minor by Florence B. Price, the first ever work by an African-American female composer to have been played by a large symphony orchestra. British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s violin concerto concludes the night. It is a programme like the Chineke! Orchestra itself, a celebration of the ideal of spirited diversity in classical music.

Programme
Four Black American Dances (Carlos Simon),
Violin Concerto in G Minor Op. 80 (Samuel Coleridge-Taylor),
Symphony No. 1 in E Minor (Florence B. Price)

A joint project of the Vienna Festival (Wiener Festwochen) | Free Republic of Vienna and the Wiener Konzerthaus