Una Winifred Atwell

aka Winifred Atwell

KS2

• Winifred Atwell began playing the piano when she was four years old in Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean.

• When she was older she obtained a degree in pharmacy and worked with her father who was a chemist.

• Winifred Atwell would perform at charity events alongside working in her career as a pharmacist.

• She went to NY to study music and then travelled to the UK to further her studies, and to work for the BBC.

• She also performed at many private parties for the royal family at Buckingham Palace.

• Winifred Atwell was the first Black person to have a number one hit single in the UK Singles Chart, and is currently the only female instrumentalist to achieve this feat.

• Atwell sold 3 million records to achieve her number one record, and over 20 million records during her career.

KS3

• Born Una Winifred Atwell in Tunapuna, Trinidad and Tobago in 1914.

• Atwell began playing the piano when she was a child aged four. She had a degree in pharmacy and worked in her father’s chemist shop. Atwell continued to perform in charity events, and for the local American servicemen at the Air Force base.

• Her fame and popularity spread and eventually she went to New York to study piano techniques before travelling to England in 1946. Atwell studied classical piano at London’s Royal Academy of Music and became the first female pianist to be awarded the highest grade for musicianship.

• Having difficulty finding work after her formal training Atwell began playing jazz in local clubs where her popularity grew as a ragtime pianist.

• Atwell had her own TV series called Bernard Delfont Presents The Winifred Atwell Show, this aired on ITV and BBC, and a radio series called, Pianorama.

• During the height of her career Atwell sold over 20 million records. She is the only holder of two gold and two silver discs for piano music in Britain.

• Her hands were insured by Lloyds of London with the policy stipulating that she was never to wash dishes.

• As well as private performances for the royal family at Buckingham Palace, Atwell performed at three Royal Variety Performances and appeared at every capital city in Europe where she played for over twenty million people.

Characteristics Innovative, versatile, ambitious, talented, influential.

KS4

Born
1914 Tunapuna, Trinidad and Tobago

Died
28 February 1983, Australia

Time Period
20th Century

Geographic Location
Trinidad, UK, NY - USA, Belfast, Australia, Europe

Nationality
Trinidadian, British, Australian

Activity Highlights

• Pharmacist, Classical Pianist, Honky-Tonk Musician, Ragtime Musician, Recording Artist

• Born Una Winifred Atwell in Tunapuna, Trinidad and Tobago in 1914.

• Atwell began playing the piano when she was a child aged four. She had a degree in pharmacy and worked in her father’s chemist shop. She went to New York, USA to study music, and then travelled to the UK in 1946 to further her musical studies, and to work for the BBC.

• In 1947 Atwell married Reginald Levisohn, a variety performer, who was later on to become her manager. Atwell had her professional breakthrough in 1948 after performing at the London Casino in place of another ill musician. She went on to play at the first Royal Variety Performance in 1952 and later on attended Buckingham Palace to perform at private parties for the royal family.

• Atwell had her own TV series called Bernard Delfont Presents The Winifred Atwell Show, this aired on ITV and BBC, and a radio series called, Pianorama.

• Following all this exposure Atwell’s fame rose and she became well known in Britain as a show-business personality. She was the first Black recording artist to reach number one in the record charts and the first artist from Britain to have three million selling hits. All this was made even more remarkable because Atwell was an instrumentalist. By 1960 Atwell had eleven top-ten hits and was mentioned in soap-operas like Coronation Street as a popular entertainer. Atwell is the only holder of two gold and two silver discs for piano music in Britain.

• In 1969 Atwell was awarded the Trinidad and Tobago’s national award, the Gold Hummingbird Medal, for her achievements in music.

• Atwell toured and gave concerts abroad and in her second tour of Australia in 1961 she was outraged that Aborigines were separated or excluded from attending her performances. However, she still liked the country and in 1971 she was granted permission to live in Australia as an immigrant because although she did not fit in with the countries ‘White Australia’ immigration policy she was deemed to be ‘of good character and had special qualifications’. She was finally granted full citizenship in Australia in 1981, two years before she died in the country she had grown to love and accept as home after she was rejected by Britain.

• Atwell, the honky-tonk musician, died in 1983 in her newly adopted home of Australia.

• In 2020 a Black Plaque was erected in South London celebrating her global musical achievements.

Family

Husband

• Reginald Levisohn

Links
[1]: ‘Black plaque honouring pianist Winifred Atwell unveiled in south London’
[2]: ‘First black woman to have a number one single honoured with plaque’
[3]: Winifred Atwell performing a Piano Act (1960)
[4]: The Black and White Rag played by Winifred Atwell