Evening talk by Sir Richard Stilgoe with pianists Dr Samantha Ege and Beatrice Nicholas on the life and music of Winifred Atwell.
In Celebration of Winifred Atwell runs at the V&A South Kensington on Friday 13 November, from 18:30 to 19:30. It's a talk dedicated to the Trinidadian-born composer and pianist, with Sir Richard Stilgoe in conversation with pianists Dr Samantha Ege and Beatrice Nicholas. The session is part of the V&A's What's On Talks Programme, a series of evening talks given by curators, makers and specialist guest speakers, open to members and non-members alike.
Atwell's name might not be on everyone's radar, but her record is. She was the first Black music artist to have a Number One single in the UK, with her instrumental hit Let's Have Another Party in 1954. She was educated at the Royal Academy of Music, and her career went far beyond that one chart-topper: she led her own television programmes on the BBC and ITV, opened a beauty parlour, and built a performance catalogue that spanned classical music and jazz. The talk looks at that whole stretch of her life and work, from the early training to the TV years and the music in between.
There's a physical link to the night too. Her 'Other Piano', the one she used for ragtime and boogie-woogie, is currently on display at V&A East in the exhibition The Music is Black: A British Story. If you've seen the piano, this talk fills in the story behind it.
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It's held in the Lydia and Manfred Gorvy Lecture Theatre at the V&A South Kensington on Cromwell Road, SW7 2RL. Tickets are £12 to £18, and there's a livestream version available online for £8 if you can't make it in person. The talk runs from 18:30 to 19:30 on Friday 13 November.
