Dr Uchenna Ngwe’s academic research focuses on explorations of Black classical musicians in Britain through the lens of curatorial-activism. She is the creator of plainsightSOUND – an online research project promoting historical Black musicians in British classical music – and co-founder of the Shared Narratives online conference and network for researchers of colour in the performing arts. Uchenna has presented several BBC Radio programmes including the Radio 3 Sunday Feature ‘Frank Johnson, Queen Victoria and the Black Brass Band’, which followed her research into the life of an innovative 19th-century African American performer and composer.
Her PhD titled Re-Sounding the African Diaspora: Uncovering Afro-British histories in British classical music was awarded in 2022.
Recent research
- plainsightSOUND: Investigation into historical African diaspora classical musicians in Britain (ongoing)
- Black Lives in Music / Attitude is Everything: Unseen. Unheard: Race and Disability report (2023)
- Trinity College London: Diversifying syllabuses (fl/cl) commissioning project (2022) (news)
- Overcoat Media: Commonwealth composers research (2021-22)
- Arts Council England: Individual arts practitioners’ skills development report (2021-2)