Classical music is overwhelmingly white and male. My orchestra shows that can change | Chi-chi Nwanoku
This year’s Proms include too few female and BME composers and musicians. I founded Chineke! to help redress the balance
Across the cultural landscape, the light of truth is working its way through the past. Historical inaccuracies, unattributed contributions and long-lost gems – all victims of male whitewashing – are being restored and reinstated.
Hidden Figures, an Oscar-nominated film of 2016, shows the incredible contribution of three pioneering black women. Rosalind Franklin’s work, which enabled James Watson and Francis Crick to uncover DNA and claim a Nobel prize, has only recently been fully recognised, many years after her death. From art to science and beyond, the work of historically marginalised groups is being gloriously shared. Except within classical music, that is. And to compound matters, the errors of the past are being repeated today.