Jan Preston's Life and Music of Winifred Atwell

Winifred Atwell -- known as the “Queen of the Ivories” -- is an iconic part of the piano culture of the 1950s in Australia and New Zealand... A culture which has now all but disappeared.

Award winning musician Jan Preston – who wrote the score to her sister’s movie Home by Christmas starring Martin Henderson – pays tribute to Winifred in a delightful theatre show touring New Zealand this September and October.

The life and music of Winifred Atwell is a multi media photo and live music presentation which takes audiences on a journey through Winifred’s glowing career and gives an understanding of the real Winnie; her warm, generous and appealing personality, her tireless fundraising for children’s charities, the racism she endured, her great sense of humour and dignity, as well as bringing to life the sparkling piano music of her era.

“I first had the idea to write and perform a show about Winnie whilst playing her famous “Black and White Rag” in my own boogie woogie concerts,” says Jan. “Audiences were so genuinely delighted to be reminded of her, and after my show, I was often swamped by people bursting to tell me about the time they met her or heard her play.

“Everyone, it seems, has a Winifred Atwell story.

“Everyone loved her, and she loved the people Down Under."

After the bleak war years Winifred Atwell came along and charmed audiences with her vibrant honky tonk piano, her gently aristocratic personality, and a smile that was said to “light up a concert platform”.

As her million album selling career waned in the UK, it grew in popularity in Australia and New Zealand. So much so that she and her husband/manager, Lou Levisohn, emigrated permanently and lived out the last 17 years of their lives in Sydney.

Jan Preston began her career playing classical music. It was later in life, after hearing Winifred Atwell playing honky tonk piano music, boogie woogie and ragtime, that Jan taught herself to play this popular style.

Her admiration for Winnie Atwell, who was also a virtuoso classical piano player, lead Jan to spend two years researching Winnie’s life which produced the show “Queen of the Ivories.”

Jan is known as “the Queen of boogie piano” in Australia and NZ, plays concerts and festivals regularly in Europe, has won 5 music awards, and also writes music for films, such as her sister Gaylene’s feature film, Home By Christmas.

Winifred Atwell
Did you know?

- Winifred Atwell’s real name is Una Winifred Atwell and she was born in Tunapuna, in Trinidad.
- Winifred Atwell was the first million selling black artist in the UK, had 11 top ten hits, and still holds the record for the most instrumental piano sales in the UK.
- Winnie Atwell and her husband emigrated to Australia in the 1960s and lived out the last 20 years of their lives there, and are buried in Northern NSW.
- At the height of her career in the 1950s Winifred Atwell’s hands were insured with Lloyds of London, one clause in the contract stipulating “Ms Atwell must never do the dishes.”
- Winnie collected mascot dolls, was superstitious of new shoes so never wore them on stage, was an avid and skilled doer of crosswords, loved watching cricket, but always barracked for England, never the West Indies.
- Her husband, Lew Levisohn, was also her manager, and had great difficulty getting bookings for Winnie in her early years because of the colour of her skin. One agent on first meeting her said, to her face, “Law, I didn’t realise you was a darkie!”
- Winnie and Lew bought Winifred Atwell’s “other” honky tonk piano from a Battersea junkshop for 2 pounds, 10 shillings, and it was ultimately insured for 10 thousand pounds.
- Winifred Atwell always wanted to play a concert in a submarine, as she thought her piano would sound.

Event listed by Sandra Roberts

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