Chinyere Adah Nwanoku OBE was born in London in June 1956. She was a student at Kendrick School. She is a double bass player and professor of Historical Double Bass Studies at the Royal Academy of Music. She was a founder member and principal bassist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, a position she held for 30 years. Of Nigerian and Irish descent, she is the founder and Artistic Director of the Chineke! Orchestra. The Chineke! Orchestra the first professional orchestra & junior orchestra in Europe to be made up of a majority of black and minority ethnic musicians.