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Violinist playing violin expressively
View all events for category: Classical music

Chineke! Orchestra: Coleridge-Taylor Violin Concerto

Chineke! Orchestra finds harmony in the rhythms and melodies of Black American dances alongside Coleridge-Taylor’s colourful concerto.

Originally premiered in 1912, just weeks before the composer’s tragic death, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Violin Concerto is a colourful heartfelt showcase for both soloist – tonight Njioma Chinyere Grevious – and orchestra.

The concert opens with Carlos Simon’s Four Black American Dances, an orchestral study of the music that is associated with four styles of dance: the ring shout, waltz, tap dance and holy dance. Through these dances, the work shines a light on the wide range of cultural and social differences within Black American communities.

And we close with Florence Price’s Symphony No.1. Premiered in 1933, the Symphony was the first work by an African American woman to be performed by a major US orchestra.

A piece well known to Chineke! audiences, the work is suffused with spiritual themes, dance music, cross-rhythms, off-beat phrasing and melodic accents that were characteristic of so-called ‘negro-folk’ music.

Performers

Chineke! Orchestra

Joseph Young conductor

Njioma Chinyere Grevious violin

Repertoire

Carlos Simon: 4 Black American Dances for orchestra

Coleridge-Taylor: Violin Concerto in G minor, Op.80

Interval

Price: Symphony No.1 in E minor

Need to know

Age guidance
For ages 7+. Under-12s must be accompanied by an adult on our site.

For your visit

This event is held at the Queen Elizabeth Hall Southbank Centre

The Queen Elizabeth Hall is open from 90 minutes before events start until they finish. It’s closed at all other times.