Mark Atkins

Virtuosic Didjeridoo

Managers & Producers

Atkins’ concert had me awe struck
Kristy Edmunds, Artistic Director, Melbourne International Arts Festival

A descendant of the Yamijti people of Western Australia and of Irish-Australian heritage, Mark Atkins is one of Australia's finest didgeridoo players. He is recognised nationally and internationally for his collaborative projects with some of the world's leading composers and musicians including Philip Glass, David Broza, Peter Sculthorpe, John Williamson, Sinead O'Connor and Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page. He is a master of this instrument, able to work across styles of music both as a soloist and as an ensemble player. He has incorporated the sound of the didjeridoo into some unlikely musical environments, adding its primal pulse to orchestral works, theatrical productions and dance presentations.

Mark is a prolific instrument maker, making and painting didgeridoos from the logs he collects on trips into the bush north west of his hometown of Tamworth, New South Wales.

Atkins draws his audience in so that you almost feel that you are sitting round a fire listening to his stories, stories told in music and in voice. He is a master storyteller, has a warm sense of humour, and he has music in his soul. The audience was entranced, moved one moment, laughing out loud the next.
Australian Stage Online

Mark co-wrote Voices for didgeridoo and organ with Philip Glass commissioned by the City of Melbourne for the inauguration of the refurbished Town Hall Organ. Voices was subsequently performed at the Lincoln Centre in New York and toured to Amman, Jordan in 2006.

A film documentary about Mark’s life and work by Rick Randall, Yamitji Man: Geraldton 6350 via New York, was screened on SBS in 2003.

Mark is currently a collaborative performer with the Black Arm Band murundak.

Mark world premiered his new solo concert Grungada: A Journey of Music and Song at the 2007 Melbourne International Festival. Grungada draws on his rich and diverse background to offer an eclectic mix of original and new compositions featuring didgeridoo, guitar and harmonica, accompanied by a superb visual arrangement. Grungada is a chance to experience the music of Mark Atkins as never before - intimate and live. 

Contact

marguerite@mpproductions.com.au

On Tour

Please see News & Current Tours for information on Mark Atkins tour dates.

Technical Needs

Contact marguerite@mpproductions.com.au for full technical rider.

Photography by John Sones