Jacob Adams
Paul Asaro
Faye Ballard
Jeff Barnhart
Andrew Barrett
Taslimah P. Bey
Rod & Tricia Biensen
Mimi Blais
Bill Brown
Clark Buehling & the Skirtlifters
Susan Spracklen Cordell
The Crown Syncopators Ragtime Trio

While Jeff Barnhart is now a highly regarded pianist, vocalist, arranger, bandleader, recording artist, composer, pedagogue and entertainer, he had very humble beginnings.  Jeff began his professional career at age 14 playing and entertaining four nights a week in a restaurant in his home state of Connecticut. Here he began to learn the classic swing, jazz and ragtime repertoire of the early 20th century.  Jeff put himself through college playing throughout New England including stints with one of his childhood influences, the Galvanized Jazz Band.  In the 1990’s he toured the US and Canada, playing most of the major festivals on the circuit with either the Hot Cat Jazz band or the Draga-Vax Connection. 

The 21st century has found Jeff constantly appearing as a soloist and band pianist at parties, festivals, clubs and cruises in all corners of the globe.  He currently manages the Titan Hot 7, one of the most acclaimed bands in the country.  In addition, he leads two bands in the UK:  the Fryer-Barnhart International Jazz Band, which concentrates on hot music of the 1920’s, and Jeff Barnhart’s British Band, which performs small group swing of the 30’s.  Due to his versatility, vast repertoire and vibrant energy, Jeff is in increasing demand as a participant in All-Star Jazz ensembles around the world.

In addition to his widely acclaimed solo and band appearances, Jeff is enjoying great success performing with smaller groups, most notably Ivory&Gold, a group he co-leads with his talented wife, flutist Anne Barnhart and Grammy-Award winning drummer, Danny Coots.  Ivory&Gold has become a mainstay at many jazz and ragtime festivals throughout the US and the UK.  In addition, Jeff plays and sings with clarinetist Bob Draga and drummer Danny Coots as part of the swing trio We Three, which is garnering praise from both audiences and critics at major festivals, concerts and parties.

Andrew Barrett comes from a musical family and has been playing some kind of percussion since he was little, and has had both informal and formal training. He has had several years of piano lessons starting at age 10 and continues to play drums, washboard, piano, xylophone, bells, reed organ, etc. Another fun learning experience was playing washboard with mentor George Probert’s Monrovia Old-Style Jazz Band for several years. He also played euphonium in junior high and high school band and is considering maybe dusting it off once in a while.

His earliest memory is hearing a dance organ at a museum when he was just a year old. He has maintained a great interest in automatic musical instruments since that time, especially player pianos, orchestrions, and band and fairground organs. The styles of various automatic musical instrument arrangers (“noteurs”) have also had a profound influence on everything he does, musically. Names such as P.M. Keast, Ray Deyo, Sylvia Schultz, Carl Frei, August Schollaert, Mae Brown, Eugene DeRoy, George Bogatko, and Gustav Bruder are unknown to the general public today, but they shouldn’t be.

As a pianist, he is most influenced by pianists from the ‘10’s and ‘20’s such as Francis Carter, Fred Longshaw, Charley Straight, Phil Schwartz, Clarence Johnson, James Blythe, Donald Lambert, Roy Bargy, Frank Banta, Pete Wendling, Blind Leroy Garnett, Gus Drobegg, and J. Russel Robinson.

As a composer, he is particularly influenced by the so-called “advanced ragtime” of the ‘teens, including the harmonically advanced rags of Paul Pratt, Harry Jentes, George Cobb, etc. as well as the cream of the popular ragtime composers of the 1908-1915 era such as Jean Schwartz, Silvio Hein, Charlotte Blake, Albert Gumble, Henry Lodge, etc.

More modern compositional influences include everything from the more advanced and daring “chamber jazz” and novelty piano compositions of the late ‘20’s all the way through rock music from the 1960’s to the present. His favorite modern ragtime composers include Fred Hoeptner, Tom Brier, Robin Frost, David Thomas Roberts, Stephen Kent Goodman, and others.

Taslimah P. Bey began studying classical music at age 16, and switched to jazz in her senior year of high school.  In 1985, Taslimah presented the Ragtime Legacy, a lecture/concert on the compositions of early ragtime composers, including Scott Joplin, Jelly Roll Morton, Artie Matthews, Eubie Blake and James P. Johnson.  In 1986, she formed Taslimah’s Ragtime Band, in an effort to expand upon previous ragtime presentations to include her band arrangements for ragtime compositions.  The band includes a rotating roster of jazz greats Marcus Belgrave, Charlie Gabriel, Marion Hayden, Greg Patrick, Tony Holland, Raycee Biggs and James Carter.  Taslimah has a long list of performances in several jazz and ragtime festivals throughout the United States.  She recently has performed at Preservation Hall with the jazz legends of New Orleans, including drummer, Shannon Powell, and at the Bluenote Jazz Café in New York City, also with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.  In May, 2001, Taslimah received the award for the Preservation of African-American Music from the Societie for the Culturally Concerned in Detroit.  Taslimah has performed at Greenfield Village for the past 15 years and is a headline artist at Greenfield Village’s Ragtime Street Fair.  In addition to performing ragtime, Taslimah has Bachelor’s of Music and teaches at Law Academy in Detroit.  She is currently pursuing her doctorate in Music Education from Oakland University.

Nan Bostick described her experience hearing the quartet as follows:  "Taslimah Bey and her Ragtime Outlaws inspired cake-walkers, conga line dancing, and a tap dancer (who came in off the street) with their exhilarating arrangements of Harry P. Guy's Cleaning Up in Georgia, Walkin' and Talkin' and Heebie Jeebie Blues not to mention some really wonderful Jelly Roll Morton and Scott Joplin pieces. This was the first I'd ever heard an all-Black ensemble play ragtime and it cooked. … Folks, we have just got to get this band out to California. They're truly special and a delight to know."

Rod & Tricia Biensen - Dance, dance, and more dance!  Come to the dance classes and have lots of fun and learn various dance steps from the ragtime era.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t have dance experience or have never danced in your life.  You will find the instruction informative, easy to understand, and most important, fun!  Those of you with dance experience are also encouraged to participate as there will likely to be at least one or more dance steps per class that you likely haven’t done before.

Rod has been active in ballroom dancing since his grade school days.  There was an emphasis in his school system for ballroom dance and he has been an active participant ever since.  There was also instruction given by the parents who were from the generation who all danced.  He has loved ballroom dancing ever since.

Rod has taken many classes in ragtime dancing over the years as well as other ballroom dances.  He has actively taught ballroom dancing for the last 24 years to both adults and children.  He is also an active participant in ragtime piano performance as well as an accomplished cornet and tuba player. 

Joining Rod for this very fun activity is his wife Tricia who will assist in the dance instruction.  Be sure to attend Rod and Tricia’s dance classes while in Sedalia.

“Classic ragtime is an important Art form and Ragtime is Freedom!”

For Mimi Blais, ragtime music became a way to discover her many talents as an entertainer, story-teller, communicator, educator, director, actress and composer. Whatever the style of music she chooses to play, she receives unanimous praise from the public and the media; in Canada, in the United States and in Europe. This gifted pianist, generous to a fault, causes laughter and tears. Her music speaks to the audience, caresses, tickles, charms, dazzles, and surprises…it touches the soul.

Mimi Blais is one of the most popular pianist in the Ragtime circuit. She is in high demand because of her charming personality, her deep musicality and her flawless and precise technique at the piano.

As a solo concert artist, since 1993, Mimi was touring extensively, playing, explaining and showing her audience that Ragtime is like the TRUNK of a BIG TREE!  The tree is called: American music.

Classically trained, she started piano at age 7, then entered the Quebec City Conservatory of Music, L.Mus, B.Mus in performance & a Concert Diploma at McGill University in Montreal, where she currently lives. Today, as an educator, Mimi’s goal with ragtime would be to present Symposiums and Master Classes at Major music Schools such as Conservatories, Music Faculties and Colleges in Canada and the United States and show them that Scott Joplin and “Classic Ragtime composers” deserve as much respect as “Mozart or Beethoven” and should be part of their music programs. 

Since APRIL 2009, she is the artistic and musical director of a NEW stage show that she created from a classical piano music score composed by Pierres Vellones (Paris, France. 1889-1939). This production includes artists from several Art forms: visual arts, circus, theatre, music & dance… a “DREAM come TRUE”: she said. If you want to know more about it go on Mimi’s website at: www.mimiblais.com

Mimi has several CDs available at the Ragtime Store. Enjoy the festival!!

Hailing from Tin Can Alley, Bill Brown is a rare breed: an accordionist who plays ragtime! ! !   Bill has been studying music for several years, but has recently branched out into the syncopated world of ragtime. It has been determined there are only two people in the world playing ragtime accordion. The other accordionist cannot be found...

When not engaged in ragtime, Bill attends to his optometric practice, travels and collects cactus and succulents.

Bill Brown is proud to be performing again at the Scott Joplin Festival. He has also appeared at the Scott Joplin Memorial Concert, the Chippewa Valley, Blind Boone and the Lake Superior Ragtime Festivals.

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Susan E. Spracklen Cordell  has been playing ragtime for 41 years.  In her teens, she played locally at school and civic events.  In college she played in concerts and on radio and TV both in Southwest Missouri, where she lives, and in Europe, where she has ragtime friends.  When she married and had children she limited her playing to nursing homes and all the elementary schools in the area.           

From 1995 till 2005, she was the coordinator of the Carthage Ragtime Festival in her adopted town of Carthage Missouri.  When her son and daughter were in high school, she started playing in festivals outside Carthage again, and now that her children are grown and married, they like to travel with her to the concerts.

Formed in 2007, The Crown Syncopators Ragtime Trio consists of Virginia Tichenor on drums, Marty Eggers on tuba, and Frederick Hodges on piano. The trio plays regularly to enthusiastic crowds of music lovers at legendary waterfront restaurant Pier 23 in San Francisco and is expanding its territory to include ragtime and jazz festivals around the country.

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Giovanni “John” De Chiaro is a classical guitarist who made his New York debut in 1976 in a Carnegie Recital Hall performance, which brought a rave notice from the New York Times and launched a career of growing distinction. He has performed concerts worldwide, including a performance for Pope John Paul II at the Vatican, and a concert for President Clinton at a Christmas event at the White House.

John is a member of the music faculty with the University of Southern Mississippi. He also arranges and transcribes for the guitar, and has published the complete works of Scott Joplin, a four-volume collection with Mel Bay Publications. His recordings also include his own arrangements of popular Broadway classics and traditional Christmas carols.  He is a contributing editor for guitar magazines published in both the U.S. and England.

In 1989, John was commissioned by NASA to compose an original classical guitar composition for the Space Shuttle Program.  In 1982, Musical America named John as one of the magazine’s “Young Artists of the Year.”  John has recorded two nationally televised special programs for the PBS network. These programs have received Gold Awards and top honors at the International Film Festival in Columbus, Ohio, the Houston International Film Festival, and the International Film and Television Festival of New York. 

Hailed by The New York Times as “an especially impressive fine young pianist,” classical pianist Richard Dowling appears regularly across the United States in solo recitals and concerts with orchestras. He has performed in the Far East, Australia, Africa, and Europe. Career highlights include a sold-out New York orchestral debut at Lincoln Center and a solo recital at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall. Works of Chopin, Ravel, Gershwin, and American ragtime figure prominently in his repertoire.

In 2001 Mr. Dowling recorded Sweet and Low‑Down, a CD containing virtually all of the piano works by Gershwin. American Record Guide wrote of the recording, “Dowling dances through 29 Gershwin numbers with exuberance and a natural feel for rubato…if you love Gershwin, don’t miss this!” In a review of his 2004 World’s Greatest Piano Rags album another ARG critic said that “Dowling plays with tremendous zip and zest…I am sure he is the best ragtime pianist I have ever heard.” He has also recorded two classical CDs of Chopin, three CDs of cello and piano works with cellist Evan Drachman, and a three-CD set of pop songs called A Perfect Moment. His newest CD is Rhapsody in Ragtime––a compilation of ragtime, novelty, stride, and jazz piano solos.

Dowling has received glowing reviews of his concerts that praise him as “a master of creating beautiful sounds with impeccable control of colors and textures,” as “a musician with something to say, the skill to say it and the magnetic power to make you want to listen” and for giving “a superb recital that left the audience craving for more at the end.”

At Yale University Dowling received the Lockwood Award for performing the best recital and the Simonds Award for outstanding solo and ensemble playing. He earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The University of Texas. His principal teacher was Abbey Simon, a member of the Juilliard School faculty. Mr. Dowling is a Steinway Artist and is represented by Parker Artists. He is also owner of Dowling Music, Houston’s comprehensive store for sheet music, CDs, and musical gifts. Visit his websites at www.richard-dowling.com and www.dowlingmusic.com.

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Bill Edwards discovered ragtime when he was 6-years-old, and hasn't been able to leave it alone since. Learning initially from records by Paul Lingle, Frankie Carle and Lou Busch, he later discovered it was available in print form also, and started accumulating ragtime scores in his teens. Bill started his professional career in California in the late 1970s, residing in Durango, CO. through the first half of the 1980s where he took up residence at the Diamond Belle Saloon at the Strater Hotel. He has lived in Virginia since 1986. For many years Bill was a featured entertainer at the Fish Market in Alexandria. Since 1996, Bill has been applying his passion for the music on his website, www.perfessorbill.com, and has been an active researcher of selected composers and specific ragtime sub-genres. Last year Bill performed two solo concerts on the Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC. Videos of these performances may be viewed on the Kennedy Center site.

He also enjoys attending ragtime festivals and competitions, particularly the World Championship of Old-Time Piano in Illinois, where he holds the 1991 title and has consistently finished in the top five since 1987. This year he is one of three competitors in Peoria that is being featured in a documentary on the last ragtime cutting contest. Bill has 36 different CD titles available for your enjoyment. Most are themed to a genre such as classic ragtime, popular ragtime, topical rags, stride and stomps, old-time songs and blues. There are over a dozen original rags in the mix as well.

Richard Egan is a pianist and composer of ragtime and other folk-inspired American genres.  He fell in love with ragtime as a youth when he first heard Scott Joplin's music in the motion picture "The Sting."  After years of self-instruction, he won the Rosebud Ragtime Piano Competition in 1985 and has performed concerts and festivals around the country ever since.

Having spent his entire life in eastern and central Missouri, Egan feels that ragtime's sounds speak the language of the land and waters he has always loved.  While his focus has been on Midwestern Folk and Classic Ragtime, he has recently embarked on a quest to discover the elusive nexus where ragtime mingles with the fiddle tunes, mountain music, and folk songs that preceded and informed it.

Egan's publications include transcriptions of Brun Campbell's works, as well as Blind Boone's "Camp Meeting No. 1."  He has recorded three solo CD's, the most recent being Missouri Romp on the PianoMania label.

A past president of The Friends of Scott Joplin, since 2006 he has served as the chairman of the St. Louis Ragtime Piano Competition, held each May.  He can be visited at www.myspace.com/eganrags

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Tom Finger discovered Ragtime while in high school when he heard a friend playing something "completely different" on the piano. After inquiring what it was and then asking "who’s Scott Joplin?" he immediately went out and bought his first copy of that big white book with the green maple leaf on the cover. Now on his third copy, he still loves Ragtime as much as ever.

Classically trained, Tom has been teaching piano privately since graduating from the UMKC Conservatory of Music. In recent years his main focus has been trying to figure out "The King of Instruments," exploring and enjoying the organ works of Sweelinck, Buxtehude, Bach and the great French composers. As time permits, he tries to fit in some Mozart, Beethoven and Chopin. When it all gets to be too much, he regains his sanity and enjoyment of music by returning to the "happiest music" of all - Ragtime. This has included playing at the monthly rendezvous at Dressel’s in St. Louis and numerous performances before shows at the Lincoln Theatre in Belleville, Illinois for the St. Louis Theatre Organ Society.

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William Harvill is currently working for the Sherrod Library at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, TN, and hopefully when you read this he will still be a Ph.D. candidate in Musicology from the University of Kansas.  During his time in Lawrence, KS, William Harvill performed regularly on piano and saxophones with the Junkyard Jazz Band and the Osawatomie Outpatients Ragtime Quartet.  William is looking forward to playing ragtime duets with his friend Ed Judd on tuba again, and hopefully some other friends from Lawrence will join them.

Hailed by the press as one of the best ragtime pianists in the world, Frederick Hodges is sought after by today’s foremost orchestras, festivals, conductors, and collaborative musicians. His artistry, virtuosity and charisma have brought him to the world’s most renowned stages, leaving audiences around the globe captivated.

Classically trained as a concert pianist, Frederick Hodges has established a reputation as a truly versatile artist equally sought after as soloist, singer, guest soloist with the California Pops Orchestra, and dance band pianist with Don Neely’s Royal Society Jazz Orchestra. His extensive repertoire includes all the best ragtime, stride, and novelty piano solo pieces. He has appeared on national television, radio, and in several Hollywood films. He is also a much sought-after silent film accompanist for both live performances and on DVD. He performs regularly at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum.

Frederick has participated in many prestigious festivals including in Sacramento Jazz Jubilee, the WestCoast Ragtime Festival, The Blind Boone Festival in Columbia Missouri, the Templeton Ragtime Festival at Mississippi State University, the El Segundo Ragtime Festival, and the Sedalia Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival. His website is: www.frederickhodges.com.

Having performed ragtime, jazz and stride piano for over 20 years,

Beginning his musical existence at the age of three, Brian grew up living a "Ragtime Life." His grandparents raised him to love all kinds of music, but particularly styles from the early 20th century. He quickly learned his way around an organ keyboard and had a repertoire of old standards that would shock most professionals - all before the age of six. It was then that he turned his attention to the piano. However, during twelve years of intense classical studies, Brian decided that it wasn’t a concert stage he wanted to perform on, but the ragtime stage. Since then he has performed all across the US, first on majestic pipe organs in pizza parlors, and then on the uprights and concert grands at ragtime concerts and festivals.

Brian has the distinction of being a World Old-time Piano Playing Champion (1997-1999), winning his third title at only twenty-seven years of age.  He is a retired champion, having won the event three times, and is one of the youngest to ever accomplish this feat.

In 2007, Brian earned a Grammy Nomination for his work with Bud Dresser as B-Square (Ragtime – GOODTIME – Jazz CD and other recordings available at www.hollandentertainment.com).  Brian also took his love of music globally to the International Stride Summit in Zurich, Switzerland in 2007. 

"Brian Holland[‘s] lightning-fast left hand bangs out a clean, steady rhythm while his right hand skitters up and down the keyboard rendering the melody in thick chords ... watching the energy and dexterity is narcotic."  -The New York Sun

“Brian Holland has to be one of the fastest, cleanest players anywhere today. Every note, no matter how swift, is as sparkling clear as Waterford crystal. His touch is assured and he makes even the most complex passages sound easy." -Jack Rummel, Prominent reviewer & performer

Dr. Nora Hulse, retired professor of keyboard studies at Central Methodist College, Fayette, MO, was introduced to Ragtime in Cripple Creek, Colorado, later performing in  Shakey’s Pizza Parlor in Columbia, MO with her husband, Mark on banjo. In more recent years she performed ragtime regularly on the live KOMU-TV talk show, “Pepper and Friends.” Other groups include her Roundhouse Rascals Dixieland Band, The TurpinTyme Ragsters, and Ragtime Razzmatazz Duo with her husband, Mark.   Ragtime performances include the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival in Sedalia, MO; James Scott Ragtime Festival, Carthage, MO; West Coast Ragtime Festival, Sacramento; Ragtime in Randall (Iowa); Ragtime for Tulsa Foundation; Classic Ragtime Society of Indianapolis, Indiana; the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site, St. Louis; Boone County Historical Society, Columbia, MO.  Nora co-authored with Nan Bostick, an annotated lexicon, “Ragtime’s Women Composers,” which appeared in the Ragtime Ephemeralist 2002.  In June 2004, at Sedalia, MO, Nora received the prestigious Scott Joplin International Ragtime Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement in Ragtime.  She has produced six recordings and four music folios of ragtime composed by women.

Mark Hulse's early musical experience was that of a trombonist in school bands through high school in Philadelphia, PA and Long Island, NY.  In the mid 1960's he took up 4-string tenor banjo, taking lessons from a folk banjo teacher in Columbia, Mo and at Mel Bay Studios in Kirkwood, Mo.  Soon, he was playing banjo and trombone at Shakey's and Village Inn Pizza Parlors in Columbia, Mo. Over the next 40 years Mark performed with numerous Dixieland and small "combo" bands on banjo or trombone.

Mark is retired from the University of Missouri-Columbia where he managed a research instrumentation laboratory and participated in the design and development of university research instrumentation for 40 years.

During their pizza parlor years, Mark and Nora met, married and have performed together since as a banjo/piano duo.  In recent years they often appear at Jazz Banjo and Ragtime festivals as the "Ragtime Razzmatazz" Duo, perform with their Roundhouse Rascals Dixieland Band in central Missouri and, lately, with The Junkyard Jazz Band in Lawrence, Ks.

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Ed Judd’s greatest good fortune has been to perform extensively with Ragtime Razzmatazz.  Their performances have venues varying from the highly prestigious to lively and festive, and include the recording studio.  His favorite Razzmatazz show tune is “the Star Spangled Banner”.

“The Promised Land” is the phrase invoked by pianist Will Harvill for the Scott Joplin Festival. Will has referred to himself as a ‘two fisted’ ragtime pianist and Ed has great fun accompanying Will, in all his flamboyancy, especially on the “Hungarian Rag”.  Playing the virtuoso bass lines of many rags with various ragtime piano players is a great way for Ed to take unimaginable joy in performing.

In the Lawrence, KS area, Ed is playing extensively with Junkyard Jazz and the New Horizons Senior Concert Band.  He is equally at home in the symphony orchestra concert hall and on the polka band circuit.

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Sue Keller began her ragtime obsession in 1974, after graduating from DePauw University with a degree in Music and Theater.  Since then, Sue has treated audiences to her piano and vocal performances throughout the world.

Appearances have included the prestigious Scott Joplin Festival in Sedalia, Missouri, the Alexandria Bay Ragtime-Jasstime Fest, Lake Superior Festival, the Indianapolis Classic Ragtime Festival, and Zehnder's in Frankenmuth.  Sue is a member of the board of directors for the Old-Time Piano Championship in Peoria, Illinois and also judged for several years.  She has been the artistic director for the Scott Joplin festival for 2007-2009, having also performed that function from 2004 through 2006 with John Petley and Bill Long.

The latest additions to Sue’s recorded works are two Christmas CDs: “She Loved Christmas”, dedicated to her mom, Betty Keller, and “My Reindeer Don’t Like to Fly”, as well as two new ragtime CDs: “AKA Charles Johnson”, containing works by her favorite ragtime composer, and “Ragtime Reflections”, dedicated to friends past and present.

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Lou LeBrun began studying accordion at age of 7.  She was performing in USO shows at 12 years old.  As an adult, Lou taught accordion and performed professionally for 15 years.  She then worked as a computer programmer, rarely having time to play, but resumed her musical career at the age of 72. 

She has appeared at the National Accordion Convention in Texas for the last four years, and those who hear her say that she is “awesome”, almost becoming part of the accordion. 

Although Lou’s favorite is Ragtime, a typical set includes Ragtime, Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Polkas, Dixieland, Boogie-Woogie, and sing-alongs.  All of those who have heard her enjoy her bubbling personality, career anecdotes, and unique musical styling.

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Dr. Dave Majchrzak - is a regular performer at the Scott Joplin House in St. Louis, MO and on the St. Louis Riverfront. He is making his 8th appearance at the Scott Joplin Festival in 2009. Dave is a small animal veterinarian by day, but only as a way to support his ragtime habit. He also performs with the nationally known St. Louis Stompers Classic Jazz Band and does most of the arrangements for them as well. Dr. Dave regularly substitutes with the St. Louis Ragtimers. Dave got his start in ragtime when he was 12 years old, at Shakey’s Pizza Parlor, playing with his then teacher, Steve "Stubby" Heist.

Although Dave has been performing Ragtime for nearly 36 years, he still plays ragtime because it’s fun. Playing Ragtime has opened many exciting doors for Dave, such as getting to perform for the Emperor of Japan and his wife on their United States visit in the early 1990's.  During his recent years on the Ragtime scene, Dave has performed at some the most popular Festivals in the country, including Scott Joplin Festival in Sedalia, MO, Blind Boone Festival in Columbia, MO, Grand International Festival in Alexandria Bay, New York, and was recently named the Artistic Director for the Chippewa Valley Festival in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. He has performed for the Indianapolis Ragtime Society, the Kansas City Ragtime Revelry, the Northern Virginia Ragtime Society, and Bob Milne’s Ragtime in Frankenmuth, Michigan. Dr. Dave also had the honor of being the 2008 Artist in Residence for the Scott Joplin Foundation. His performances include a mix of Ragtime, Stride, and Novelty vocals and has recently finished his 4th CD,"Dr. Dave Majchrzak’sTemptation." His Other 3 CD’s are still available, but going fast ("Burning Rags," "Dizzy Fingers," "Animal Crackers"). So much music, so little time.

Susan McIntosh, of St. Louis, Missouri, has been involved in music for over 40 years, ranging from singing joyfully in the shower to performing in classical concerts.  Her ragtime "phase" began after she saw the movie "The Sting" in 1973, followed by a trip to the local music store to buy their only book of piano rags.  She immediately ran home to learn Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer" to impress all of her friends at school.  She continues to enjoy playing a variety of early 20th century music, but she remains firm in her conviction that Scott Joplin is The King.

Larisa Migachyov has played the piano all her life and discovered ragtime in 2005, when she joined the San Antonio Ragtime Society.  She has composed more than 20 rags and performed at various festivals around the country.  Her latest CD, "Oh, that Ragtime Chick!" features all her own compositions (it is available at www.larisamigachyov.com).  She has recently graduated from law school and should really be studying for the bar exam - but being here is so much more fun!

Gerald Mohr began re-taking piano lessons in 1991.  After a couple of years he began getting hooked on ragtime, and the rest is history.  He first visited the Festival in 1996, learned of the play-some-yourself program, and vowed to return some day and play, which he first did in 2005.

He is especially fond of the ragtime waltzes, and has ‘Bethena’ and ‘Echoes from the Snowball Club’ in his repertoire. 

Gerald performs with the Friends of Scott Joplin in his home town of St. Louis.  In Addition to playing ragtime, he had sung barbershop since 1970, has played keyboard in a church guitar group since 2001, and does karaoke from time to time.

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Born in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, Terry Parrish is from a musical family.  Besides taking years of formal piano lessons, he was also introduced early to dixieland jazz and ragtime, and while in grade school "was hit really hard by Joe Fingers Carr".  In the early 1970's he and his brother (also a ragtime fan) rebuilt an old player piano while in High School and happily discovered the joys of ragtime piano rolls.  Soon after, Terry began collecting ragtime sheet music and performing ragtime in earnest.  After finishing medical school at Indiana University, he continued to play, collect, and research ragtime music and its composers.  He has played at many ragtime festivals across the country and is excited to play at this year's Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival!

William Perkins is a 16-year-old pianist from a small town in the Central Valley of California called Riverbank.  At eleven, Will began taking piano lessons.  After 2 years of regular lessons and studying baritone in school, he discovered the genre of Ragtime.  This music captivated Will, thus he went out to the music store and found the first book with Maple Leaf Rag in it.  And as they say, the rest is history.

Will also enjoys baseball, football, and is currently working on attaining his Eagle Scout. For the last two years, he placed 1st in the West Coast Ragtime Festival Youth Competition for his divisions. More recently, Will has been exploring into the world of Jelly Roll Morton and Fats Waller under the guidance of Frederick Hodges and his hometown teacher, Bob Dahlin.

John Petley was born in London, England and has resided in the Washington DC area for the last 25 years. His first exposure to ragtime music began very early in life, down at a local pub, where his parents used to park his crib next to a jangling upright piano all evening while they socialized, sang and enjoyed some malt refreshment! After a few years of formal piano lessons from an eccentric Italian lady who lived nearby, he decided to teach himself to play ragtime by spending numerous hours listening to and transcribing the recordings of the ragtime piano masters, immersing himself in these addictive rhythms and wonderful melodies. His performing career began as a teenager when, not surprisingly, he was offered a job as a pianist in an 11th century stone tavern with a thatched roof, oak beams, outside toilets, and a singing clientele which he still fondly remembers with a lot of nostalgia.

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Jim ‘Ragtime’ Radloff began ‘playing piano’ at the age of 3 by mimicking old radio commercials, and plays primarily by ear. During college and graduate school he played in saloons, supper clubs and piano bars. Since 1989 he has concentrated on tunes of the Ragtime, Classic Jazz, Vaudeville, WWI& II, Prohibition, Great Depression eras. His ‘Take Me Out To The Ball Game’ and ‘Old Fashioned Christmas’ CDs capture the spirit of the music of these times. His passion for this historical American music led to him to found the non-profit, tax-exempt Eau Claire Ragtime Festival www.ecragtime.org in 2000. Unique among Ragtime Festivals, in 10 years $81,700 has been donated to local non-profits. In 2001, he founded the Chippewa Valley Ragtime Society cvragtime@charter.net. 

John Remmers has been playing classical piano from early childhood and ragtime since the early 1970s, when he became entranced by the musical form upon hearing Joshua Rifkin's recordings of Scott Joplin's piano rags. After a swing into harpsichord playing and early music in the 1980s, John's musical focus returned to ragtime in the 1990s, and he became a frequent after-hours performer at ragtime festivals around the country.

Since retiring from his day job teaching computer science, John's involvement with ragtime has intensified. He has been featured on the programs of the Scott Joplin Festival, the West Coast Ragtime Festival, the Sutter Creek Ragtime Festival, the Lake Superior Ragtime Festival, the Blind Boone Festival, and the Ragtime-Jasstime Festival. He has appeared as guest soloist for the Classic Ragtime Society of Indiana and has competed in the Old-Time Piano Playing Contest in Peoria, Illinois. His CD "Hand-Played Rags" is available for purchase at the Ragtime Store or cdbaby.com.

Wesley Reznicek is a 16 year old high school student from Dixon, Missouri. He began classical piano lessons at age six and got hooked on ragtime about four years later. Wesley has played at ragtime festivals and contests around Missouri as well as in Wisconsin, California, Illinois and Oklahoma. Wesley won the junior division of the World Championship of Old Time Piano Playing Contest in Peoria, Illinois in 2007 and came in second in 2008. In addition to ragtime, Wesley plays piano in his school jazz band, euphonium in his school marching band, keyboard in his church youth band and is the pianist for the Newburg United Methodist Church.

Donald Ryan has been called "a musical kaleidoscope, sparkling at everything he plays."  Not only is he masterful in “playing from the book” but as an improviser he has few peers. His consummate command at the piano has triggered enthusiastic responses across the U. S. A. (Carnegie Hall, New York and the Wayne Newton Theater in Las Vegas included), England, France, Germany, Austria, Poland, Spain, Switzerland and the Caribbean.

A favorite with ragtime audiences, he has been a repeat featured performer at the Scott Joplin International Ragtime Festival in Sedalia, MO. One reviewer appraised him as “probably the premier performer of ragtime in the formal classical style active on the festival circuit today.” In the fall of 2005 Mr. Ryan was the Scott Joplin International Ragtime Foundation Artist-In-Residence to schools in and around Sedalia.

Donald Ryan was only three years old when he began playing the piano in his native Trinidad, West Indies. Before reaching his teens he was his church's organist. By the age of fourteen he had won trophies for performance in national competitions, and was the pianist for a weekly live radio program that reached the entire eastern Caribbean. In the 1975 Chopin Competition in Warsaw, Ryan was the recipient of the Madeyska award.

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Morgan Siever is twelve years old and lives in Carlyle, Illinois.  This is Morgan’s fourth year performing at the Scott Joplin Festival here in Sedalia.  Morgan’s recent honors include a 1st Superior for Golliwogs Rag for District band competition in February. Golliwogs Rag was also performed by Morgan at SIUE in October.  Since she received a 1st place, she went on to play it at Wheaton College for the state level competition in November.  She performed at the Festival for the Classic Ragtime Society of Indianapolis in August.  At The Friends of Scott Joplin Competition at Meramec College, she received a 1st place for I’ve Found a New Baby.  At the same competition in St. Louis, Morgan has received an Honorable Mention in 2005 and 2nd place in 2006, 2007, and 2008.  At the World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest in Peoria, Illinois, Morgan participated with the juniors (8-18) in 2005, placed 4th in 2006, 7th place in 2007, and 3rd in 2008.  Morgan was a guest soloist with the Alton Symphony Orchestra in April, 2006.  Morgan has also performed at the Missouri Historical Society and performs regularly at the Ragtime Rendezvous at Dressel's in St. Louis, as well.

On the riverboats, on minstrel stages and under the big tops of America developed a blend of African and Anglo-Celtic musical cultures: Clarke Buehling & The SkirtLifters present the music and humor of those times.  Their listeners enjoy rags, marches, galops, jigs, reels and old-time songs.  The entertaining program traces the origins of American popula

Clarke Buehling:  banjo (clawhammer, classic and minstrel styles), vocals
Recognized worldwide for his insightful interpretations of late 19th century classic finger-style banjo, Clarke is also in the forefront of the recent resurgence of interest in the earlier minstrel banjo style.  Much of the material of The SkirtLifters is based around his collection of 19th century banjo and mandolin instruction books and string band sheet music.  Clarke teaches banjo, fiddle, mandolin and guitar in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Tom Verdot:  violin, banjo
A skilled violin maker from Columbia, Missouri, Tom creates and repairs instruments, and performs on his own fiddles.  With a lifetime of experience in both orchestral and traditional playing, his flexible technique lends itself to a wide variety of styles.  His long-time interest in American History has made him a fixture at several historical re-enactment events where he has participated as a fiddle master, speaker and first-person re-enactor.

Thom Howard:  guitar, mandolin, banjo, vocals
Thom brings a long history of solo guitar performance to the group.  With experience in a broad range of musical styles he teaches guitar and strings at Central Methodist University.  Thom was the Kansas fingerpicking champion in 2003, and also records as a solo guitarist.

Kent Beyette:  dance, percussion
Kent is a P.H.D (Professor of Heelology and Dance.)  He is also a retired University of Florida English professor and navy pilot, now residing in northwest Arkansas.  His flat-foot dancing career began with performances with the Cross Creek Cloggers of Gainesville.

Martin Spitznagel has been hailed as a "remarkable, exhausting, and utterly astonishing" talent.  A native of Pittsburgh, PA, Martin discovered his love of the piano and a curious music called “ragtime” at the age of twelve.  Two years later, he won a Yamaha Disklavier piano in Calliope Media's nationwide "Crazy for Ragtime" competition.  In the years since, he has been an active composer and performer, studying with noted jazz pianist and pedagogue Tony Caramia and Grammy-nominated pianist Brian Holland. He has been a featured performer at music festivals across the country including the Scott Joplin International Ragtime Festival in Sedalia, MO, and the West Coast Ragtime Festival in Sacramento, CA.  In October 2007, in association with Rivermont Records, he released his debut album, "Tricky Fingers," which ragtime reviewer Jack Rummel declared “an impressive first recording.” When he is not at the piano, Martin works as an instructional designer, writer, and filmmaker. He lives in Alexandria, VA, with his wife, Jessica.  For more information, please visit www.spitzfire.com.

Steve Standiford returns to his ragtime roots in Missouri, for his fourth trip to Sedalia as a performer.  He has performed at festivals across the country with most of the usual suspects, on piano, tuba, and string bass, including being a guest performer at the Pianorama at the Great Rivers Jazz Festival in LaCrosse, Wisconsin.  He now lives in the Philadelphia area, pursuing his ragtime passion, supporting that habit as a cancer surgeon.  This trip marks the debut of his new tuba, Fourba, and her debut with the Bill Brown Ragtime Band.

Monty Suffern began piano lessons at age seven with his Aunt in Melbourne Australia. As soon as he could reach octaves she insisted on a thorough grounding in chords.  By age ten he had developed his own stride style, although he was unaware of the term for decades.  At ten the family moved and his piano lessons essentially ceased. He has mainly played by ear ever since, developing various genres, although today he concentrates mainly on stride and ragtime.  His piano playing philosophy is simple: use as much of the piano as you can reach (sometimes including the wood at either end) and grab as many notes as you can fit into two hands.  In the past year, he has also turned his attention to composing, writing a number of companion rags (i.e. a composition that can be played along with an original rag, but can also be played as a rag in its own right).

Honored to be performing again this year at the Ragtime Dance, the Sunflower Ragtime Orchestra has been playing authentic orchestrated ragtime since 1986.  Based in Olathe, Kansas, the SRO has performed at numerous events throughout the Kansas City region, including appearances at the Kansas City Blues and Jazz Festival, Kansas City Spirit Fest, Ragtime Revelry, Old Shawnee Town, Olathe Old Settlers’ Days, the Turkey Creek Festival, and many other public and private shows, dances, and festivals, including Sedalia’s Scott Joplin Festival.  Led by conductor, violinist, and reed player Steven Smith, the Sunflower Ragtime Orchestra is proud to present these wonderful and timeless pieces of Americana from over a century ago

Adam Swanson, from the small town of Shenandoah, Iowa, is rapidly becoming known as one of the world’s foremost performers and historians of American ragtime. He discovered ragtime on his grandparents’ “Web-TV” and has played the piano about seven years. Although he is only seventeen years old, he has been a featured performer at ragtime and jazz festivals across the United States. In 2007 he appeared alongside John Arpin at the Bohem Ragtime and Jazz Festival in the Republic of Hungary. In May 2008 he became the youngest ever to win the World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest held in Peoria, Illinois. Most recently, Adam recorded a duet album with the great Johnny Maddox

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The Tichenor Family appears in Sedalia this year in various configurations.  Trebor, Virginia, and Marty will all perform individually and with each other.  Marty and Virginia will also perform with Frederick Hodges as the Crown Syncopators.

Trebor Tichenor, piano, hardly needs an introduction to ragtime audiences as he’s been playing, composing and collecting ragtime for over forty years.  Trebor is one of ragtime’s leading composers, historians, pianists, scholars, and collectors.  A native of St. Louis, he was privately tutored in music, beginning on piano at age 5.  He discovered ragtime at age 13 through the recordings of Joe “Fingers” Carr.  He began performing professionally in 1960 and co-founded The St. Louis Ragtimers in 1961, with whom he still performs.  He also co-founded, with the late Russ Cassidy, a quarterly publication entitled The Ragtime Review.  Trebor’s writings on ragtime have appeared in all major journals devoted to the art.  In 1978, he wrote, with Dave Jasen, a book entitled Rags and Ragtime.  He also produced two folios of ragtime, Ragtime Rarities and Ragtime Rediscoveries.  He hosted a weekly radio show called “Ragophile” for fifteen years, and has been teaching a course on the history of ragtime at Washington University for over 25 years.  Trebor is listed in American Keyboard Artists and the International Who’s Who in Music and Musicians Directory.

Virginia Tichenor, piano and drums, Trebor’s daughter, has followed in her father’s musical footsteps and has been consumed by ragtime her entire life.  She grew up in the midst of one of the world’s largest collections of ragtime sheet music and piano rolls and at an early age met Eubie Blake, Max Morath, and Butch Thompson.  Not surprisingly, Virginia began playing ragtime piano.  She also studied classical piano technique with Anne Mayer and the late Dr. John Philips.  Virginia performs ragtime at festivals and concerts across the country.  She also plays traditional jazz with the Devil Mountain Jazz Band of Oakley, California.  Besides playing piano, Virginia also plays drums. 

Virginia met Marty Eggers in 1994 at the San Diego Jazz Festival where both Marty and Trebor were performing.  Soon after their first meeting Virginia moved to California.  They married in 1997 and currently live in Oakland.

Marty Eggers’ music career began in Sacramento, California, where as a teenager he helped found the Sacramento Ragtime Society.  Originally a pianist, since the early 1990s he has worked full-time as a musician, playing bass with the nationally-known Butch Thompson Trio, the Royal Society Jazz Orchestra and with Bo Grumpus from 1992 to 2002.  On piano, Marty plays with a number of traditional jazz and ragtime groups, most notably the Yerba Buena Stompers and the Black Diamond Jazz Band.  In 2003 he joined the trio of the great blues, boogie and jazz pianist Carl Sonny Leyland.  At this year’s festival he will perform on solo piano, on piano, bass and tuba with the Tichenor Family, and on tuba with the Crown Syncopators.

Andy Tichenor

Dave Tucker is an internationally-known performer of early jazz styles.  Dave specialized in performing ragtime, novelty, blues and Harlem stride piano music, but has expanded in recent years to performance with dance orchestras and several small combos.  The early jazz standards of the great American songbook has also become an important part of Dave’s constantly expanding repertoire.

In 2001 Dave issued his first recording “Tickled Ragtime & Novelties” featuring the music of Scott Joplin, Joseph Lamb, Zez Confrey and others.  A second CD “Meadow Lark”, issued in April 2005, includes more ragtime and expands into the Harlem stride of Fats Waller, James P Johnson and Willie “The Lion” Smith, along with other examples of early jazz piano music.

Now a regular performer at music festivals nationwide, Dave has performed at the International Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival, the Blind Boone Ragtime Festival, the West Coast Ragtime Festival, the Lake Superior Ragtime Festival, the Eau Claire Ragtime Festival, the Alexandria Bay Ragtime/Jasstime Festival, the Northern Virginia Ragtime Society, among other numerous appearances.  Dave has also conducted several ragtime presentations for school children.

Dave now performs regularly in the Washington D.C. region.   In 2005, Dave joined the New Hots Dance Orchestra as their pianist.  The Hots is a dance orchestra specializing in presenting the music of the 1920s and 1930s while occasionally expanding to include the classic swing era (1940s).

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Roberta L. Wilkes was "born in a trunk" in 1942.  Her parents traveled in tent repertoire theatre in the midwest.  Roberta trouped until she was 11; then again when she was 18.  Roberta's father was a professional piano player on the shows; her mother was a dancer.  Her maternal grandmother played piano for silent movies in Kansas City.  Roberta plays all types of piano music but loves ragtime.  She has written a rag she calls "Gypsy Rag."  Roberta is a lawyer in Kansas City, Kansas as a "day job” and is on the Advisory Board of the Theatre Museum in Mt. Pleasant, a museum dedicated to “repertoire, tent and folk theatre."

Bryan Wright, of Lynchburg, Virginia, is presently a graduate student at the University of Pittsburgh where he is pursuing a PhD in historical musicology. Classically trained on piano from age 5, Bryan first heard ragtime late in elementary school and soon began studying the rags of Scott Joplin, James Scott, and others alongside the works of Beethoven, Schumann, and Mozart. As an undergraduate in college, he hosted a weekly ragtime radio program "Elite Syncopations" on WCWM-FM (Williamsburg, VA). Today, he is host of "Soundstage," a radio program featuring a mix of ragtime, traditional jazz, dance bands, and big band swing (available online at www.bostonpete.com). Bryan has performed at the JVC Jazz Festival in New York City, the San Antonio Ragtime Festival, the Oklahoma Centennial Ragtime Festival in Tulsa, and others. Apart from his student obligations, Bryan operates Rivermont Records, a label devoted to reissuing historical recordings of the early 20th century as well as newly-recorded performances of ragtime and early jazz. His own CD, "Syncopated Musings," features classic rags by Scott Joplin, Arthur Marshall, Harry Jentes, Joseph Lamb, May Aufderheide, Muriel Pollock, Artie Matthews, and others and is available in the Ragtime Store.

Brett Youens was born in Weimar, Texas in 1974.  He fell in love with Ragtime and the music of early 20th century America at an early age, performing "Basin Street Blues" on the trombone accompanied by his school band at age 12.  After completing his studies in Music and German at the University of Texas at Austin, Brett moved to Germany to concentrate on composition and piano performance, where he earned a degree in Piano Pedagogy in 2005.  He has written numerous concert and pedagogical works, including the piano method, "Snowman's Dream" which makes use of the latest in brain research to accelerate the piano learning process.  His latest CD, "Elite Syncopations: The music and influence of the King of Ragtime, Scott Joplin", includes works by Joplin and those he inspired: from Joseph Lamb to Claude Debussy to Brett himself, who is represented by two of his own published rags.  His current projects include, “The Well-Tempered Ragtimer”, a cycle of ragtime works in all of the major keys, and "Fun on the Black Keys", a method book that teaches how easy it can be to play pieces with many sharps and flats.  His work, “The Gift of the Magi”, a ragtime musical based on the O’Henry short story, premiered in Texas in August of 2007.  Brett currently resides in Tuebingen, Germany where he is active as a teacher, conductor, and ragtime pianist.

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