Cush Jumbo and Josephine and I have picked up the 2013 Evening Standard Award for Emerging Talent. This show, with musical direction and arrangements by Joe, premiered at London's Bush Theatre this summer, where it received a string of fantastic reviews. Plans for future performances are currently in development, but further information about the show's life to date can be found below and on the Events page.
Other News
Joe has just returned from New York, where he and Jessica Walker have recorded her one-woman show The Girl I Left Behind Me, for upcoming commercial release. The recording will feature the complete show, alongside three bonus tracks, newly arranged by Joe. Release dates will follow soon.
Joe accompanied Jess to New York back in May, where they performed The Girl I Left Behind Me (directed by Neil Bartlett) as part of the 2013 Brits Off Broadway Festival at the acclaimed 59E59 Theaters. The show played to hugely appreciative, sell-out audiences and picked up a number of excellent reviews. Jess and Joe will be returning to Brits Off Broadway in June 2014.
Ms. Walker and Mr. (Neil) Bartlett...together with the show's musical director, Joe Atkins, a stylish pianist, bring ardent affection and a sprinkling of sociology to their engrossing tour through the lives and careers of these pioneering performers. - The New York Times. Read the full review here.
Joe is also preparing for a number of upcoming events, including a performance of his flute and piano duo Trapeze and a new cabaret with Katie Brennan.
Photo by Max Narula
15 August 2013
Sell-out run for Josephine and I
Josephine and I, written by and starring the Olivier-nominated Cush Jumbo, and directed by Phyllida Lloyd, has been playing to sell-out audiences at the Bush Theatre since it opened in back in July. The show, which celebrates the life of 20th-century icon, Josephine Baker, features original compositions and arrangements, plus live piano accompaniment by Joe. The show has gathered a string of fantastic reviews and has played to a number of special celebrity guests including Meryl Streep, David Schwimmer, Tracy Ullmann and Sheila Hancock, among many others. The current run ends on the 17th August, but prospects for future performances are looking very exciting indeed! Further news will be posted here in due course.
23 May 2013
Upcoming summer events
Having returned from a sell-out run with Jess Walker at the 2013 Brits Off Broadway Festival in New York, Joe is currently preparing for a busy summer of performances. These include a new show with Jess, a visit to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and an appearance as musical director of Josephine and I, a new play by Olivier-nominated Cush Jumbo, at the Bush Theatre, directed by the award-winning Phyllida Lloyd. More details can be found here.
27 February 2013
CD release and new events
Guitarist Antonis Hatzinikolaou is to release Music of Memory with NMC Recordings - an album of music for solo guitar featuring Joe's Indian Summer, as well as works by Nicholas Maw, Peter Fricker and John McCabe. The album will available from 8 April 2013 - audio previews can be heard here.
2013 looks set to be a busy year, with Joe due to be musical director of shows on both sides of the Atlantic in the next few months. Check out the Eventspage.
