Chi-chi enjoys an international life as a classical double bassist. Professor at the Royal Academy of Music she is the Founder, Artistic & Executive Director of Chineke! Foundation, whose mission is “championing change and celebrating diversity in classical music”. She broadcasts regularly for BBC and Classic FM and featured on Desert Island Discs and the 2020 BBC documentary Being Beethoven. Awarded the OBE in 2017 for Services to Music, she won the Commonwealth Cultural Enter- prise Award, Creative Industries Award, Top 10 BBC Women in Music and made Honorary Doctor of Music at both Chichester and Open Universities.
In 2016 Chi-chi won Black British Business Awards ‘Person of the Year’; the 2017 ABO Award for ‘most important contribution to orchestral life of the UK. She is featured in the 2020 book of 100 Great Black Britons and was voted to the Powerlist of Britain’s 100 Most Influential Black People in 2019, 2020 and 2021. Chi-chi was made a Visiting Fellow of Jesus College Cambridge in 2021. Chi-chi advocates the importance of music in everyone’s lives.
