Victor Atkins

Danny Barker Professorship in Jazz Studies

Victor Atkins received his B.M. from Berklee College of Music in Boston and an M.F.A. from the Manhattan School of Music, Victor Atkins toured and recorded with many prominent jazz and popular artists including Aaron Neville of the Neville Brothers and Elvin Jones of the classic John Coltrane Quartet. Professor Atkins won a Billboard Award in 1999 with Los Hombres Calientes and in 2010 he won a Grammy with the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra for whom he is principal staff arranger on “Great Jazz,” a Kultura-TV jazz competition television series in Russia.

Professor Atkins’ compositions and arrangements have been featured on recordings by Wynton Marsalis, the Headhunters, Los Hombres Calientes, and Aaron Neville. He has been commissioned by the New Orleans Jazz Institute and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra to compose music for a variety of concert events. Victor Atkins joined the University of New Orleans Adjunct Faculty in 1994 and in 2006 he was appointed Assistant Professor. He was Graduate Coordinator for the Department of Music from 2008-2012 and in 2012 he was tenured and promoted to Associate Professor. At the University of New Orleans, Professor Atkins holds the Danny Barker Professorship of Jazz Studies and teaches jazz harmony, theory, composition, keyboard, combo, and applied piano.