Scott Joplin

Dubbed the "King of Ragtime", Scott Joplin (ca. 1868-1917) was one of the most important and influential composers at the turn of the 20th century. At age seven, he discovered a piano in a neighbour's house and began experimenting with it by ear. In 1897, Joplin had his breakthrough, when he completed his Maple Leaf Rag.

Between January and April 1975, classically trained, award-winning jazz pianist and composer Dick Hyman - whose prodigious resume includes playing with Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and Benny Goodman, writing and arranging for Count Basie, and scoring most of Woody Allen's films - went to RCA's Studio A in New York City and made the definitive recording of ragtime legend Scott Joplin's piano works.

This is a special performance by Royce Martin celebrating the release of his new album “Memories on Morgan Street” Scott Joplin Reimagined by Royce Martin on Rivermont Records.

Chart-topping American pianist Lara Downes reflects on the music of Scott Joplin through a 21st-century lens, revealing its many layers of genre-blurring subtlety and nuance. Joplin is revered as The “King of Ragtime". He’s acknowledged as a classically-trained composer of concert music whose ambitions were denied in his own time. He was both of those things, and more - an innovator who merged traditions and histories to make music at the crossroads of the American future. His story is ready to be retold.

The music of Scott Joplin, the “King of Ragtime”, achieved a newfound popularity in the mid-1970s, nearly sixty years after the composer’s death. Its beguiling synthesis of African-American syncopations and European musical forms is eloquently captured by Itzhak Perlman and André Previn.

Ragtime performer, historian, author and producer Richard Zimmerman presents the music of legendary rag pianist Scott Joplin with Excerpts from Treemonisha.

Olga Petrović has released her new jazz album Scott Joplin Slow drag on the Krokodil studio label.

This album represents Marco Fumo’s final album and is a remastering of earlier recordings.

Since the rediscovery of Scott Joplin’s ragtime genius in the 1970s his music has been an important part of the popular/light classical repertoire. Yet though he called himself with some justification “The King of Ragtime Writers” he was not a brilliant pianist; he was actually a trained violinist and cornet player and was lead singer of the Texas Medley Quartette. This wide experience helped to make his piano rags full of interest.

Australia’s acclaimed guitar quartet Guitar Trek has delighted audiences around the world for over 30 years. Pioneered by Timothy Kain in 1987, Guitar Trek reinvented the guitar quartet medium through its unique combination of its different-sized guitars. Critics and audiences the world over have warmed to the freshness and energy of their music-making.