S4 Ep1 - This is Who We Are: Deborah Cheetham & Chi-chi Nwanoku on transforming classical music

First aired: 16 March 2022

This episode brings together Professor Deborah Cheetham AO, First Nations Creative Chair of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and producer of Australia’s first Indigenous opera, and Chi-chi Nwanoku OBE, founder of the first professional orchestra in Europe to be made up of a majority of Black, Asian and ethnically diverse musicians. These two trailblazing women talk about their decades-long careers, decolonising systems and breaking down doors in Australian and UK classical music.

Both speak to Melanie Abrahams who is our partner on this project, creative director and curator with Renaissance One in the UK.

Guests: Chi-chi Nwanoku OBE, Professor Deborah Cheetham, AO

Interviewer: Melanie Abrahams

Research and presentation: Lena Nahlous, Diversity Arts Australia

Host: Lena Nahlous

Producer: Nadyat El Gawley

Music: Threads of Existence, part three of a composition from Deborah Cheetham’s Woven Song – Pukumani series.

Credits:

Music composer: Deborah Cheetham AO

Guzheng: Mindy Meng Wang (guest musician)

Flute: Lisa-Maree Amos

Oboe: Joshua De Graaf

Clarinet: Justin Beere

Audio recording courtesy ABC Classic

Woven Song – Pukumani on YouTube

Filmed on location at NGV Australia

Cinematography and Production: David Ward

More background information:

The Chineke! Effect – if you can see it, you can be it

Classical Drive with Chi-chi Nwanoku 

Classical Drive with Deborah Cheetham

This podcast is a collaboration with This Is Who We Are, a UK-Australian movement of intergenerational & intersectional women artists, producers and creatives of colour who are transforming sectors, thinking and spaces.

This season was produced on the unceded lands of the Boon Wurrung people of the Kulin nation, and the Gadigal and Wangal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. Always was. Always will be. Aboriginal Land.