International orchestra Chineke! will make their Harrogate debut, opening the Summer Festival at the Royal Hall. The Chineke! Foundation was created by Chi-chi Nwanoku CBE in 2015 to provide outstanding career opportunities to established and up-and-coming Black and ethnically diverse classical musicians in the UK and Europe. The Foundation’s flagship ensemble, the Chineke! Orchestra, comprises exceptional musicians from across the continent brought together multiple times per year. Praised for their ‘special electricity’ at their Proms debut and joining Stormzy on stage at the 2023 BRIT Awards, their programme features Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. Famously dubbed the Black Mahler, his light yet spirited Novelletten is actually inspired by German Robert Schumann’s piano miniatures, the eight Novelletten.

Completing the programme are Gustav Holst’s St Paul’s Suite, which takes its name from the Hammersmith school where Holst taught; Vaughan Williams’ Oboe Concerto, a wartime piece penned after his Fifth Symphony, and Beethoven’s enchanting Fourth Symphony, first performed in 1808.

Scotland-based American conductor Kellen Gray has earned a reputation as a versatile and imaginative artist. Kellen is the current Assistant Conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Associate Conductor of the Charleston Symphony (USA).

Born in France, soloist Armand Djikoloum studied at Conservatoire National Supérieur Musique et Danse de Lyon and with Philippe Tondre at the Hochschule für Musik Saar. In 2021 he was a prize-winner at the Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) International Auditions.

‘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!’ – Sir Simon Rattle