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Outlook: The Double Bass Saved My Life

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Chi-chi Nwanoku

28/02/2018 GMT

The Double Bass Saved My Life

BBC World Service - Outlook, The Double Bass Saved My Life

Chi-chi Nwanoku, founder of Europe's majority black and ethnic minority orchestra Chineke

Chi-chi Nwanoku was set to become an Olympic sprinter, but an injury ended her athletic dreams and she became a classical musician.

Chi-chi Nwanoku is the five foot tall double bass player who started Europe's first majority black and ethnic minority orchestra. It's called the Chineke! Orchestra and has performed in prestigious venues to great critical acclaim. Chi-chi was born in London, the daughter of a Nigerian father and an Irish mother. In her teens, Chi-chi was set to become an Olympic sprinter, but she dislocated her knee during a girls football match and never returned to athletics. Then she came across the double bass and this orchestral instrument changed her life forever.

The American artist Marguerite deCourcelle describes herself as a 'cryptoartist' who paints secret codes into her work. She tells us about one of her images that was uncovered after three years. 

The football referee Damian Rubino from Argentina is believed to have broken an extraordinary record in 2011 - by showing 36 red cards in a single game, dismissing all the players, substitutes and coaches! The scenes occurred in the fifth tier of Argentinean football between rival teams Claypole and Victoriano Arenas.

Down in an old Edwardian basement in North London, a very curious world exists. It's filled with creatures from the deep sea, insects from the deepest jungles, two headed skeletons and even a mummy or two. It is the world of Viktor Wynd, who has spent his life travelling to collect oddities from the farthest corners of the earth. 

(Picture: Chi-chi Nwanoku. Credit BBC/Sim Canetty-Clarke)

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