Q&A with Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Chineke! timpanist Paul Philbert
Paul Philbert presents four episodes of Sunday Night Scala for Black History Month
Last updated 1st Oct 2020
Paul Philbert hosts for Sunday Night Scala this coming weekend - our weekly programme dedicated to playing complete classical works.
As timpanist with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and Chineke! - Europe’s first majority Black and Minority Ethnic orchestra - we're delighted he's helping us to mark Black History Month on Scala Radio.
We spoke to Paul about the series which starts on Sunday 4th October, how being a part of Chineke! has changed him, what Black History Month means to him, and about the series of musical recommendations he’s making throughout October.
This is your second appearance on Scala Radio. How have you found preparing your script and recommendations?
I've really enjoyed it - just being able to pick out all that music! I've chosen these twenty daily pieces, and have researched the repertoire for the Sunday Night Scala shows too. It's been a revelation for me. Many of the composers I've never heard of before! In preparing my recommendations I’ve thought about the way I would take the listener on a journey through these pieces, and how to tell them the story of my own voyage of discovery with this music.
Tell us more about that journey
In April 2015, when I attended that very first meeting to discuss Chineke!, well that was the first time I’d heard about Chevalier de Saint-George, and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. All of these great black composers and I had never heard of them before. I was absolutely astonished.
I distinctly remember the conversation because of where we were. We had the meeting upstairs, at the Royal Festival Hall, up on the top level. I sat there, mostly listening, because I was just gobsmacked by all of this information I was being bombarded with. I think that was also the first time I heard of the Detroit-based Sphinx Organization too - it's their remit to promote diversity in classical music and the arts.
Tell us about your work with Chineke! How did it all begin?
Back in 2015, it was perceived, by some, as a thing that disturbed the status quo. It prompted several uncomfortable conversations that I had with some very good friends of mine, asking, you know, why do you need to have a “Black orchestra”? Some of the push-back was quite hostile. And honestly, at that stage, I didn't have the answers for them. I do now.
I remember the first time it really hit me, I was playing a performance at a school. I was a member of the Opera North Orchestra at this stage, in the run up to Chineke!'s inaugural performance, and it struck me that actually, upwards of 50% of the children in that room were black, Asian or minority ethnic. I started to play and I noticed myself being noticed, and then it kind of struck me; they see someone like themselves. That had never entered my mind before. That’s part of why Chineke! is so important.
Tell us how you felt when Chineke! became a reality?
In retrospect, the dominant kind of emotion for me was disbelief. Because it was entirely unfamiliar to me. Chineke! really is an education for not only audiences, but for the current, and next generation of musicians.
How do you feel being part of Chineke! has helped you as a musician?
Speaking from my personal position, I have been afraid, very much so, for my entire life. Which is why I think my experience with Chineke! has been so important because it has it has helped me to see that I don't need to be. Nobody should be, and it’s very important to communicate that to as many people as possible.
What does Black History Month mean to you?
For many years, I'd been caught up in performing, and have been very lucky to have gotten as far as I have. I've had a couple of conversations with colleagues who have spoken of racism in this business, and the barriers that it has put up. So, I feel particularly fortunate to have made it this far. I do think things are changing, but that change is still very much in its infancy. But, I have had more conversations about all of that this year than ever before in my life.
It is ultimately my hope, and I think it should be the hope of everyone, that we meet a place, as a society, where we no longer require a Black History Month; because, by then, we are of the position, the understanding, the awareness, and our level of education is of such that it will negate the necessity to have the spotlight placed on it just once a year, and instead, every day is a Human History Day.
Listen to Paul Philbert present Sunday Night Scala throughout October from 8pm on Sunday 4th October.