June 2025 reviews for A Fiddlers Tale with Chineke! :
“ A virtuoso performance delivered by Josie d’Arby”. The Standard .
“A peerless performance” Musicomh.com
I have been fortunate to so far narrate two amazing pieces with orchestra for live concert audiences. So my current repertoire consists of just these two works so far, but wow, they somehow sit perfectly together and perfectly within my chops. 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾
The Fiddler’s Tale by Wynton Marsalis is the latest addition to my repertoire and boy did I have a blast with this one. I was over the moon when The Chineke Chamber Orchestra asked me to narrate this piece for them, and then gave me carte Blanche to make it my own. A huge honour and a great pleasure, we performed in June 2025 at the Warwick Art Centre in Coventry and then finally in the Queen Elizabeth Hall at London’s South Bank Centre. An incredible experience I will be forever grateful for , for more reasons than I can say. But if you want to find out more about my interpretation of this fabulous piece , I’ve written about it in my Sanctuary. . God willing pics of performance to follow, but I don’t have any right now, but if you scroll down you can see the poster I made to visualise each character. To read reviews of this concert head to: https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/music/chineke-orchestra-a-fiddlers-tale-at-queen-elizabeth-hall-review-b1231571.html
And
Huge thanks if you came to see the show 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾
The other piece is Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf which I have performed in Manchester and Sheffield with Manchester Camerata .
This fun story for all ages really brings together and celebrates innocence, courage and faith in the main character Peter and his friend the bird. The music is flawless, so beautiful. So truly delightful. Really one of my all time favourite jobs. Just an absolute joy. I’ve added some rehearsal images below .
