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Rachmaninov ! Sibelius
Sergei Rachmaninoff, Jean Sibelius

Chineke! Orchestra

Rachmaninov ! Sibelius

Price: € 25.95
Format: CD
Label: Signum Classics
UPC: 0635212054826
Catnr: SIGCD 548
Release date: 05 October 2018
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Label
Signum Classics
UPC
0635212054826
Catalogue number
SIGCD 548
Release date
05 October 2018
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
EN
NL

About the album

The Chineke! Orchestra return to disc on Signum in a new live orchestral recording from the Royal Festival Hall, London.

Drawn from exceptional musicians from across the continent, the orchestra is part of the Chineke! Foundation – a non-profit organisation that provides career opportunities to young Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) classical musicians in the UK and Europe. Their motto is ‘Championing Change and Celebrating Diversity in Classical Music’.

The Chineke! Orchestra is the brainchild of Chi-chi Nwanoku OBE, FRAM, who says: ‘My aim is to create a space where BME musicians can walk on stage and know that they belong, in every sense of the word. If even one BME child feels that their colour is getting in the way of their musical ambitions, then I hope to inspire them, give them a platform, and show them that music, of whatever kind, is for all people.’

In this live concert recording under conductor Roderick Cox they perform Sibelius’s 2nd Symphony and Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.3, featuring multi-award-winning pianist Gerard Aimontche.

Het Chineke! Orchestra, dat is samengesteld uit jonge en uitzonderlijke musici die van overal uit het continent, is onderdeel van de Chineke! Stichting een non-profit organisatie die jonge klassieke musici uit etnische minderheden in het Verenigd Koninkrijk en Europa de kans biedt om carrière te maken. Hun motto is “Championing Change and Celebrating Diversity in Classical Music.”

Het Chineke! Orchestra is het geesteskind van Chi-chi Nwanoku, die zegt: “ mijn doel is voor muzikanten uit etnische minderheden zo'n sfeer te creëren dat ze zonder gêne het podium durven te betreden, in de wetenschap dat ze daar thuishoren in de breedste zin van het woord. Zelfs als een kind het gevoel heeft dat zijn kleur en achtergrond zijn muzikale ambities belemmert, hoop ik ze te inspireren, ze een platform te geven en ze laten zien dat muziek, welke muziek dan ook, voor alle mensen is.”

In deze live concertopname vanuit de Royal Festival Hall speelt het orkest de Tweede Symfonie van Sibelius en het Derde Pianoconcert van Rachmaninov, onder leiding van Roderick Cox en in gezelschap van de met meerdere prijzen bekroonde pianist Gerard Aimontche.

Artist(s)

Chineke! Orchestra

The Chineke! Foundation was established in 2015 to provide career opportunities to young Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) classical musicians in the UK and Europe. Chineke!’s motto is: ‘Championing change and celebrating diversity in classical music’. The organisation aims to be a catalyst for change, realising existing diversity targets within the industry by increasing the representation of BME musicians in British and European orchestras. The Foundation’s flagship ensemble, the Chineke! Orchestra, comprises exceptional musicians from across the continent brought together multiple times per year. As Europe’s first majority-BME orchestra, the Chineke! Orchestra performs a mixture of standard orchestral repertoire along with the works of BME composers both past and present. The Chineke! Orchestra works closely with its sister ensemble, the Chineke! Junior Orchestra,...
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The Chineke! Foundation was established in 2015 to provide career opportunities to young Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) classical musicians in the UK and Europe. Chineke!’s motto is: ‘Championing change and celebrating diversity in classical music’. The organisation aims to be a catalyst for change, realising existing diversity targets within the industry by increasing the representation of BME musicians in British and European orchestras.

The Foundation’s flagship ensemble, the Chineke! Orchestra, comprises exceptional musicians from across the continent brought together multiple times per year. As Europe’s first majority-BME orchestra, the Chineke! Orchestra performs a mixture of standard orchestral repertoire along with the works of BME composers both past and present.

The Chineke! Orchestra works closely with its sister ensemble, the Chineke! Junior Orchestra, a youth orchestra of BME players aged 11-18, with senior players acting as mentors, teachers and role models to the young musicians. With many of our junior musicians already benefitting from several existing youth schemes, junior music colleges and specialist music

schools across the UK, the Chineke! Junior Orchestra acts as a bridge between such schemes and higher education, giving its players experience, encouragement and confidence during their formative years, with the hope of increasing the numbers of BME candidates currently studying music at third level. This process has already begun, with several of the junior musicians having won national competitions, gained places at top music schools or been admitted to study at elite third level institutions.
Chineke! is the brainchild of Chi-chi Nwanoku OBE, who has this say about the project: ‘My aim is to create a space where BME musicians can walk on stage and know that they belong, in every sense of the word. If even one BME child feels that their colour is getting in the way of their musical ambitions, then I hope to inspire them, give them a platform, and show them that music, of whatever kind, is for all people.’

Many cultural organisations such as the BBC, Association of British Orchestras, Royal Philharmionic Society and Arts Council England agree with this sentiment, and have supported Chineke! After its launch concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in September of 2015, the Chineke! Orchestra was

appointed as an Associate Orchestra of the Southbank Centre, and returned there to perform in September of 2016 at the Royal Festival Hall. After a sold-out debut at St George’s Bristol in April 2017, the Chineke! Orchestra has an exciting series of concerts lined up for the coming year, including appearances at the Brighton, Cheltenham and Salisbury Festivals, a return to the Royal Festival Hall, overseas tours to Ghent and Rotterdam, and an engagement at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms.

Chineke! has been covered extensively by national and international press and broadcast media, most recently by the New York Times, and the Foundation’s work is featured prominently in the Department of Culture, Media and Sport’s White Paper on Culture published in March 2016. The Chineke! Orchestra has been shortlisted for an RPS Awards in both 2016 and 2017, and later this year will release its first CD.

The aims of the Chineke! Foundation and Orchestra are certainly ambitious, and in words of Sir Simon Rattle: ‘Chineke! is not only an exciting idea but a profoundly necessary one. The kind of idea which is so obvious that you wonder why it is not already in place. The kind of idea which could deepen and enrich classical music in the UK for generations. What a thrilling prospect!’


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Roderick Cox (conductor)

Gerard Aimontche (piano)

Pianist Gerard Aimontche is a prizewinner at numerous international competitions and  has performed in Russia and abroad in such well-known venues as the Carnegie Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, Great Hall of moscow Conservatory, and many others. Aimontche has performed several times with the State Symphony Orchestra of Moscow under conductor Dmitriy Orlov, and he also played with the Kaliningrad Chamber Orchestra under the prestigious baton of Aleksandr Andreev. He has also been invited to perform at international music festivals including Mozarteum, Montreux Jazz Festival, Visiting Larisa Gergieva, The River of Talents, and Night in the Museum.
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Pianist Gerard Aimontche is a prizewinner at numerous international competitions and has performed in Russia and abroad in such well-known venues as the Carnegie Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, Great Hall of moscow Conservatory, and many others.
Aimontche has performed several times with the State Symphony Orchestra of Moscow under conductor Dmitriy Orlov, and he also played with the Kaliningrad Chamber Orchestra under the prestigious baton of Aleksandr Andreev. He has also been invited to perform at international music festivals including Mozarteum, Montreux Jazz Festival, Visiting Larisa Gergieva, The River of Talents, and Night in the Museum.

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Composer(s)

Jean Sibelius

Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) was the composer who gave Finland its own sound, right when this nation was struggling to detach itself from Russia. Sibelius wrote several impressive symphonic poems - among which Finlandia, Lemminkäinen-suite, Oceaniden, Tapiola - for he took inspiration from the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic.  He was just as original as a symphonist: his Seven Symphonies are just as much answers to the question how the genre should develop after Tchaikovsky's death. 
more
Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) was the composer who gave Finland its own sound, right when this nation was struggling to detach itself from Russia. Sibelius wrote several impressive symphonic poems - among which Finlandia, Lemminkäinen-suite, Oceaniden, Tapiola - for he took inspiration from the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic. He was just as original as a symphonist: his Seven Symphonies are just as much answers to the question how the genre should develop after Tchaikovsky's death.
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Sergei Rachmaninoff

Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninov was a Russian pianist, composer, and conductor of the late-Romantic period, some of whose works are among the most popular in the classical repertoire. Born into a musical family, Rachmaninov took up the piano at age four. He graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1892 and had composed several piano and orchestral pieces by this time. In 1897, following the critical reaction to his Symphony No. 1, Rachmaninoff entered a four-year depression and composed little until successful therapy allowed him to complete his enthusiastically received Piano Concerto No. 2 in 1901. After the Russian Revolution, Rachmaninov and his family left Russia and resided in the United States, first in New York City. Demanding piano concert tour schedules caused...
more
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninov was a Russian pianist, composer, and conductor of the late-Romantic period, some of whose works are among the most popular in the classical repertoire.
Born into a musical family, Rachmaninov took up the piano at age four. He graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1892 and had composed several piano and orchestral pieces by this time. In 1897, following the critical reaction to his Symphony No. 1, Rachmaninoff entered a four-year depression and composed little until successful therapy allowed him to complete his enthusiastically received Piano Concerto No. 2 in 1901. After the Russian Revolution, Rachmaninov and his family left Russia and resided in the United States, first in New York City. Demanding piano concert tour schedules caused his output as composer to slow tremendously; between 1918 and 1943, he completed just six compositions, including Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Symphony No. 3, and Symphonic Dances. In 1942, Rachmaninov moved to Beverly Hills, California. One month before his death from advanced melanoma, Rachmaninov acquired American citizenship.
Early influences of Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Balakirev, Mussorgsky, and other Russian composers gave way to a personal style notable for its song-like melodicism, expressiveness and his use of rich orchestral colors.[3] The piano is featured prominently in Rachmaninov's compositional output, and through his own skills as a performer he explored the expressive possibilities of the instrument.

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