Chineke! Junior Orchestra nominated for Best Classical Music Education Initiative Award

Chineke! Junior Orchestra has been nominated in the Music & Drama Education Awards 2020 in the category of “Best Classical Music Education Initiative Award”, which is voted for by Classic FM listeners!

This award will honour an education project that has used classical music in an innovative way, shown musical excellence and had a positive impact on a significant number of participants.

The sister ensemble of the professional Chineke! Orchestra, the Chineke! Junior Orchestra is a youth orchestra of majority black and minority ethnic (BME) players aged 11-22. Members of the senior Chineke! Orchestra play an important role as mentors, teachers and role models to the younger musicians.

In this way, the Chineke! Junior Orchestra acts as a bridge between youth music 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 in higher education. This process has already begun, with several Chineke! Juniors winning full scholarships to the Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, Royal Northern College of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Voting is open on the Classic FM website until 19th December. Just click on the Chineke! box where all three nominees are shown under the first section of explanatory text.