The live audience in the Royal Albert Hall will experience an exhilarating programme that celebrates great Black composers of British, African and African-American heritage.
The Chineke! Orchestra returns for its fourth visit to the Proms, celebrating diversity in composers as well as performers. Black British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s overture to his popular cantata based on the tale of a Native American leader quotes the spiritual ‘Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen’.

There are further meetings of African and European musical styles in Nigerian composer Fela Sowande’s African Suite and the piano concerto by Florence Price, the first female African-American composer to win renown in America. By contrast, Coleridge-Taylor’s Symphony, written as a 20-year old student of Stanford at London’s Royal College of Music, reveals the influence of his hero, Dvořák.
Broadcast on BBC Four on Thursday 26 August
Image: Kalena Bovell © R. R. Jones
To be joined once more by conductor Kalena Bovell and pianist Jeneba Kanneh-Mason, who both make their debut appearances at the BBC Proms.
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Overture – Hiawatha
Fela Sowande African Suite
Florence B Price Piano Concerto in One Movement
-interval-
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Symphony No 1 in A minor
Chineke! Orchestra
Kalena Bovell, conductor
Jeneba Kanneh-Mason, piano
For tickets, and for more information on the BBC Proms season, visit the website.
Tuesday, 24 August 2021
19:30 21:00
Royal Albert Hall Kensington Gore South Kensington, LondonSW7 2AP (map)
You must log in to post a comment.