Community Arts Music Association Will Present Trailblazing Chineke! Orchestra

The 106th concert season of Community Arts Music Association (CAMA) of Santa Barbara will continue at The Granada Theatre on Thursday, April 3, with a highly anticipated appearance by the Chineke! Orchestra, the pioneering, London-based ensemble dedicated to championing accomplished classical musicians and composers from underrepresented communities.

The acclaimed group will present an evening of compelling works by Black composers, as well as Franz Joseph Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto in E-flat, featuring Connaught Brass founding member Aaron Azunda Akugbo. The concert will begin at 7:30 pm. Single ticket prices start at $20.

The performance will take place nearly five years to the day after the Chineke! Orchestra was originally scheduled to make its Santa Barbara debut (on April 14, 2020), also under the aegis of CAMA. That concert was canceled on account of the Covid pandemic. 

“This concert is literally more than five years in the making and we could not be more excited for the community,” said CAMA President Mark Trueblood. “The Chineke! Orchestra is redefining modern notions of classical music. Just as importantly, it has earned a reputation for dynamic, emotionally resonant performances. This promises to be a highlight of CAMA’s 2024-25 season!”  

The April 3 program will open with Seven O’Clock Shout, a vibrant work by contemporary composer Valerie Coleman intended as an homage to the indefatigable spirit of frontline workers during the Covid pandemic. This will be followed by Avril Coleridge-Taylor’s evocative Sussex Landscape, a tribute to the English countryside that showcases the composer's lyrical and expressive style. Next, charismatic Nigerian-Scottish trumpeter Aaron Azunda Akugbo will take center stage for Haydn’s dazzling Trumpet Concerto in E-flat. The concert’s second half will begin with Brian Nabors’ spirited Pulse for Orchestra, a work bursting with rhythmic energy and vitality. The program will conclude with Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s powerful Symphony No. 1 in A Minor, a richly orchestrated work that blends Romantic grandeur with influences from the composer’s African heritage. (Avril Coleridge-Taylor was Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's daughter.)

At the podium will be Zimbabwean-born conductor Vimbayi Kaziboni, who has met with praise for his interpretive imagination and engaging presence on stage. Mr. Kaziboni, who serves as assistant professor of orchestral studies and contemporary music at Boston Conservatory at Berklee, has led critically lauded performances with orchestras across the globe. Recent collaborators have included the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and the BBC Philharmonic, among many others. As recipient of the 2024 Ditson Conductor’s Award from Columbia University, Mr. Kaziboni joins a list of conducting luminaries that includes Leonard Bernstein, Leopold Stokowski, James de Priest, Marin Alsop, and Michael Tilson Thomas.

The Chineke! Orchestra has blazed a singular artistic trail since its founding a decade ago. The flagship ensemble of the Chineke! Foundation – established in 2015 to provide Black and ethnically diverse classical musicians in the United Kingdom and Europe with performance opportunities and visibility – it performs a wide-ranging repertoire that encompasses both standard orchestral works and often-overlooked compositions by underrepresented composers. The orchestra’s journey began with a landmark debut concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London in September 2015. Since then, Chineke! has garnered international acclaim, gracing the stages of prestigious venues and festivals, including the renowned BBC Proms, the Lucerne Festival, and the Edinburgh Festival1. The orchestra's commitment to expanding the classical music canon is further evidenced by its impressive discography, which features critically acclaimed recordings of works by composers such as Florence B. Price, a trailblazing African American composer whose symphonies and concertos were largely neglected during her lifetime. The organization takes its name from the exclamation “Chineke!” in the Igbo language of West Africa, an invocation of the creator to express wonder, awe, or surprise. According to founder Chi-chi Nwanoku, the word reflects the orchestra’s mission to celebrate and inspire new possibilities in classical music.

Tickets for the April 3 performance can be purchased at The Granada Theatre Box Office, (805) 899-2222 or https://ticketing.granadasb.org/19373/19381.

CAMA’s 2024-25 concert season continues with appearances by piano masters Yefim Bronfman and Garrick Ohlsson at the Lobero Theatre on April 9 and May 21, respectively, and a performance by the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the baton of Conductor Laureate Esa-Pekka Salonen and featuring celebrated French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard on May 9 at The Granada Theatre.

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