Jeff Barnhart is an internationally renowned pianist, vocalist, and arranger, bandleader, recording artist, composer (member of ASCAP), educator and entertainer.  Jeff began his professional career at age 14 playing and entertaining in a restaurant in his home state of Connecticut. Currently, he leads two bands in the UK: the Fryer-Barnhart International Jazz Band and Jeff Barnhart’s British Band. Due to his versatility, Jeff is in increasing demand as a participant in international jazz events as either a soloist or as pianist in All-Star Jazz ensembles. In addition to his solo and band appearances, Jeff is enjoying great success performing with smaller groups, most notably Ivory&Gold®, a group he co-leads with his wife, flutist/vocalist Anne Barnhart. 
    In addition to his own label, Jazz Alive Records, Jeff plays piano and sings on the international labels GHB, Summit-World Jazz Records, Music Minus One, and the two largest jazz labels in the UK, Lake Records and P.E.K. Sound.  He is also a featured artist on the Arbors Records label, his most recent recording featuring jazz legends Bob Wilber and Bucky Pizzarelli. 
    Jeff is a dedicated and enthusiastic educator.  His double BA in Music and English, combined with his MA in Education, make Jeff a formidable and entertaining force in the clinic, master class and inspirational speaking forums. To learn more about Jeff visit www.jeffbarnhart.com. 

DANNY COOTS began playing drums at the tender age of 6 years old. Since then, he has studied with Nick Baffaro, Rich Holly, Alan Koffman and Jim Petercsak in percussion. Danny attended The Crane School of Music and St. Lawrence University and University.  He eventually served as adjunct faculty at St. Lawrence University, Clarkson University and Potsdam State University from the 1970s into the 1990s.  He continued traveling and performing with David Amram, Ray Shiner, Daniel Pinkham, Herb Ellis, Will Alger, Jack Mayhue, Speigle Wilcox, Mimi Hines, Phil Ford, Bob Darch, Pearl Kaufman and Arthur Duncan. 
     In 1996 Danny moved to Nashville, Tennessee and has lived there ever since. Danny has recorded extensively in Nashville, New York and L.A. and has appeared in over 100 countries. He has played on over 100 recordings, one of which won a Grammy in 2005. After moving to Tennessee, Danny joined the Jack Daniel’s Silver Cornet Band for 5 years and helped found the Titan Hot Seven. During this time he played and recorded with Dick Hyman, Houston Person, Bob Wilber, Johnny Varro, Jeff Coffin, Tim Laughlin, Harry Allen, Dave Hungate, Bill Allred, John Allred, Randy Reinhart, Ron Hockett, John Cocuzzi, John Sheridan, Dan Barrett, Vince Giordano… to name a few.   dannycoots.com/
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Neville Dickie was born in County Durham, England on January 1st 1937. His early years in music were spent in the northern working mens’ clubs. After his National Service in the RAF, Neville left Durham and moved to London.
            He spent many years working for little money in the pubs around the London area before his audition for the BBC . Hundreds of broadcasts followed, both solo and with his Trio. In 1969 he recorded “The Robins Return” which became an immediate hit. Neville remains one of the few British Jazz pianists to have had a record in the Hit Parade.
            In 1975 Neville recorded “Back To Boogie” on the “Music For Pleasure” label. This recording sold 100,000 copies and is still played all over the world today. Since then he has recorded 9 LPs and over 40 CDs on various American labels.
            After recording “Back To Boogie” Neville felt the need to go back to his roots and to the music he really loved – Jazz. He is regarded as one of the world’s finest exponents of Stride Piano and is much in demand all over the world.  nevilledickie.com/

Bill Edwards discovered ragtime when he was six years old and hasn’t been able to leave it alone since.  He started his professional career in California in the late 1970’s then resided in Durango, CO. where he took up residence at the Diamond Belle Saloon at the Strater Hotel.  He has lived and worked in Virginia since 1986.  For many years, Bill was a featured entertainer at the Fish Mark in Alexandria.  Since 1996, Bill has been applying his passion for the music on website, which includes biographies of over 200 ragtime-era figures.  He has attended all the major ragtime festivals and competitions, particularly the World Championship of Old-Time Piano in Illinois where he hold the 1991 title and has consistently finished in the top five since his initial appearance there in 1987.  Bill was recently a featured performer in the award-winning documentary, The Entertainers.  He has 40 different CD titles available for your enjoyment, and a detailed book on the life of composer and publisher, E.T. Paull.  For more information about Bill visit his website. 

Marty Eggers is well known on the West Coast as a top-notch ragtime pianist and bassist. Marty's music career began in Sacramento where as a teenager he helped found the Sacramento Ragtime Society in 1982.  In addition to solo piano, Marty has performed with the Tichenor Family Trio (Trebor Tichenor, Virginia Tichenor, and Marty).
    He has played with numerous San Francisco Bay Area jazz and ragtime groups, most notably John Gill's San Francisco JazzBand and the Black Diamond Jazz Band. His talent and versatility have led him into several varied and prestigious engagements, from recording with traditional jazz legend Bob Helm to touring Germany with Hal Smith's Rhythm Cats to playing in backup bands for both Leon Redbone and Butch Thompson. Marty is also a skilled composer and arranger of ragtime and traditional jazz.

Frederick Hodges is classically trained as a concert pianist, has established a reputation as one of the best jazz and ragtime pianists in the world, maintaining a busy schedule of stage, television, radio, and film appearances.  In addition to a busy concert schedule as soloist, he is a much sought-after silent film accompanist for both live performances and on DVD.   In 2001, Frederick earned a doctorate in history from Oxford University in England, where he lived for five years as a member of Magdalen College. From 2001 to 2002, he served as a postdoctoral research associate at Yale University. Frederick has participated in many prestigious festivals including the Monterey Jazz Festival, the Sacramento Music Festival, the West Coast 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, Cinecon Film Festival in Hollywood, among others.  Visit his website at http://www.frederickhodges.com/

Brian Holland is an internationally renowned pianist, composer, recording artist, and entertainer who has enjoyed a musical career spanning more than 35 years.  His career flourished when he discovered the World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest.  In 1999, he won his third title and was retired as undefeated.  He has since returned three times to serve on the judges panel, most recently in 2014.  
    Brian has played with some of the hottest jazz bands in the US:  Titan Hot Seven, Wally’s Warehouse Waifs, The Holland Rhythm Company, and others.  He has traveled all over the world performing his creative styles of jazz, ragtime, stride, boogie, and blues.  Holland has fourteen recordings solo and ensemble to his credit, and garnered a Grammy nomination for his work with Bud Dresser on their album:  Ragtime, Goodtime, Jazz.  This year he has added musical director to his title serving as the Musical Director for the Scott Joplin International Ragtime Festival.  
www.shanesmohawk.com/index.html


   

A dazzling pianist and formidable composer, Max Keenlyside has made an auspicious entry into the music world.  Born in 1991 and starting in music at the age of ten, he has written and performed music in ragtime, stride, and classical styles, gaining a reputation as a top young artist in his field.
            A favorite at jazz and ragtime events around the world, he has headlined at major festivals across North America including the Scott Joplin, West Coast Ragtime, and Blind Boone festivals.    While equally at home in ragtime and classical styles, he is especially lauded for his stride and traditional jazz chops.  
            In addition to festivals, Max regularly performs at concerts and has given a program for a live audience on CBC Radio.  His debut release, KeenlyStride, was issued in 2010 on the Rivermont label.  Max currently performs around North America, and is completing his undergraduate studies at Mount Allison University.
www.maxkeenlyside.ca/

Carl Sonny Leyland was born & raised on the South Coast of England.  As a child he was drawn to the American music which he heard on LP records his father would play.   At age 15 Leyland discovered boogie woogie when he heard a school friend working through a written arrangement of a tune called JD's Boogie Woogie (Marvin Wright).  Leyland went on to fully explore the piano blues genre, becoming an authority on early & obscure styles.
     Expanding his repertoire to include ragtime & early jazz styles, this enabled him to become part of the traditional jazz scene around Los Angeles & San Diego. In June of 2003, the Carl Sonny Leyland Trio was formed with drummer Hal Smith & bassist Marty Eggers. There was a natural synergy between the three that a recording of their first performance was good enough to issue on a cd.   Their versatile combination has proven successful over the years. They have recorded seven cds to date & continue to work steadily on the festival scene. (Jeff Hamilton replaced Hal Smith as drummer).
     Leyland's playing displays an infectious spontaneity, providing plenty of surprises for the listener.  While he possesses the necessary vocabulary to pay tribute to the greats of old, he refuses to limit himself to this & prefers to let each performance be an opportunity to say something new.   Visit his website at www.carlsonnyleyland.com

Dr. Dave Majchrzak recently retired as Musical Director for the Scott Joplin Foundation but he manages to fill his time.  He has completed his bucket list performing in ragtime festivals across the country.  He currently holds down the piano bench for the St. Louis Rivermen Traditional Jazz Band and is continuing the legacy of the great Trebor Tichenor with the St. Louis Ragtimers.  He still performs and arranges for the St. Louis Stompers Classic Jazz Band.  You may also run across Dave on the St. Louis Riverfront playing with the Don Scherrer Banjo Bands.  He currently serves as the Artistic Director for the St. Louis Jazz Club’s Labor Day Festival.  Surprisingly, he still finds time to continue his practice as a small animal’s veterinarian in St. Louis County.  ragtimedrdave.net/

The New York Times calls him “a hot item” and “powerful,” and the Santa Barbara Independent called him a pianist, “…with great sympathy and insight.”  William McNally is a two–time winner of the World Championship Old–Time Piano Playing Contest, and three–time winner of their New Rag Contest.  His CD release with works by Brahms, Reger and Busoni was lauded as “effortless…fascinating…mercurial… and intelligently curious.” An earlier CD release—Chickens ‘n’ Kittens—showcases contemporary Ragtime composers.
      Concerts in McNally’s 2017-18 season include performances in Massachusetts, Maryland, Virginia, Texas, Mississippi, Missouri, and Illinois, performing Russian piano music, Brahms and Ligeti horn trios, a concert of minimalist music, and of course ragtime. He completed his doctorate at CUNY’s Graduate Center, where he studied with Ursula Oppens and wrote a ragtime-focused dissertation.  He joined the faculty of Texas State University in 2016. For more information, visit http://www.williammcnally.com. 

​David Reffkin is director of the American Ragtime Ensemble and a leading authority on ragtime orchestration and performance.  He was a recording engineer on the Grammy-winning Red Back Book album of the NEC Ragtime Ensemble and later played with them.  He hosted The Ragtime Machine radio program for 30 years, with interviews and reviews appearing in The Mississippi Rag, win the Best Ragtime Journalist award.  As a professional violinist, he is a soloist and a member of various ensembles, as well as a conductor, arranger, and music contractor.
     Acknowledged for his editorial work, he wrote the Foreword for the discography Cakewalks, Rags, and Novelties (2003), and helped edit forthcoming books on Brun Campbell (Larry Karp) and the new edition of King of Ragtime (Edward Berlin).  David helped create the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival in 1974, organized and directed the All-Star Orchestra, and in 2006 received the festival’s Scott Joplin Award.  In 2011, the city of San Francisco awarded him the Mayor’s Certificate of Honor.  www.davidreffkin.com/
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The Rhythmia is an old-time acoustic string band that performs a mix of authentic ragtime, old-time fiddle tunes, and Caribbean music, along with original compositions, to form a variety of old-time folk dance music.  The Band  has kept the ragtime string band tradition alive since 2009. They also explore the Creole and Latin music of the Caribbean and Louisiana from the same period because of the many similarities to ragtime.
            The Rhythmia's concerts include brief historical information on the tunes and biographical information on the composers. A performance by the band is both entertaining and educational.
            The individual members of The Rhythmia have over 35 years experience performing at many ragtime and folk music festivals across the country including the Scott Joplin Festival,  and the Festival of American Folklife in Washington, D.C.,  by invitation of the Smithsonian. These musicians have performed at several cultural centers, outdoor fairs and festivals in the KC  area.  Learn more at  www.facebook.com/rhythmia.
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​Dalton Ridenhour a native of St. James, Missouri, began musical training at a young age and quickly developed an interest in ragtime. He was soon a regular featured performer at The Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival, The West Coast Ragtime Festival and others. In addition to festival performances during his formative years, Dalton was a member of of the 2000 Grammy All-American High School Jazz Ensemble, Betty Carter's Jazz Ahead at The Kennedy Center and The Interlochen Arts Camp. Dalton furthered his education at the Berklee College of Music and The Eastman School of Music where he studied with Harold Danko, Joanne Brackeen, Danilo Perez, Joe Lovano and Hal Crook. While at Eastman, he received a Downbeat Student Music Award and Eastman's Shirmer Prize award for jazz performance. Currently, Dalton resides in New York City where he performs locally and internationally with various groups including Vince Giordano and The Nighthawks, Dan Levinson's Roof Garden Jass Band, Naomi and Her Handsome Devils, Mike Davis and The New Wonders, Goodbye Picasso, The Bria Skonberg Quintet, and Mona's Hot Four. He has a solo album, "Eccentricity," on the Rivermont Records label. Dalton's website.
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Martin Spitznagel:  Whether performing the masterworks of Scott Joplin or the score to Star Wars, Spitznagel’s electric performances have left audiences across the world enthralled with America’s first popular music, Ragtime.
     Martin discovered ragtime at age 12. By age 14, he’d won a Yamaha Disklavier piano in Calliope Media’s nationwide Crazy for Ragtime competition. His good fortune continued when, in 1998, he met Eastman School of Music pianist and pedagogue Dr. Tony Caramia, who challenged him to “find the surprise” in every performance. 
     In the years since, Martin has grown into an award-winning composer and sought-after performer. When he’s not at the piano bench (or chasing after his much-more-talented son, Parker), Martin works as a multimedia producer, writer, and filmmaker in Pittsburgh, PA, where he lives with his wife, Jessica. He is delighted to return to the Scott Joplin International Ragtime Festival,  and feels privileged to revel in the company of the musicians and music-lovers who have brought him so much joy.   spitzfire.com/

Virginia Tichenor has been consumed by ragtime her entire life, as the daughter of Trebor Tichenor, the noted ragtime scholar, pianist, collector and founder of the St. Louis Ragtimers. She studied music at the St. Louis Community Association for the Arts, and took advanced training from concert pianist John Phillips. Always at the crossroads of the ragtime revival, her parental home houses the world's largest library of ragtime sheet music and piano rolls. Virginia grew up with legends like Eubie Blake, Max Morath and Butch Thompson chatting in her own living room. Her father is advisor-confidant for most of the ragtime community, so Virginia often heard new rags when they were forming in the minds of their composers. The topic of her college research project? The ragtime revival, of course! 
​     Virginia is very highly regarded as a performer, and is one of the few women playing ragtime professionally in the country. Her repertoire features mostly folk and classic ragtime which she performs in an energetic style. 

Yuko Eguchi Wright is a native of Tokyo, Japan and holds a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from the University of Pittsburgh. Since the age of three, Yuko studied classical ballet and piano, including a healthy dose of Scott Joplin. In her early teens, she began to study Japanese tea ceremony and was certified with the tea master title, Soyu, in 2009 and received her assistant professor title in 2013 from the Urasenke school. Yuko also studied Japanese geisha's music and dance and received the kouta master title, Kasuga Toyo Yoshiyu, in 2012. Yuko enjoys performing songs from the ragtime era with her husband, Bryan, and she loves making new friends at the festival. Visit Yuko online at: www.yukoeguchi.com

Bryan S. Wright, Ph.D., of Pittsburgh, PA, is a pianist and musicologist based at the University of Pittsburgh where he teaches courses in music history. Classically trained as a pianist from age 5, Bryan enjoys playing a variety of syncopated piano music, from classic and modern rags to piano novelties, tangos, and early jazz. With his wife, Yuko, he has performed across the United States and abroad. He is founder and executive producer of Rivermont Records, a Grammy-nominated label devoted to ragtime, dance bands, and early jazz. Bryan also avidly collects 78 rpm records and hosts a podcast, The Shellac Stack, featuring period recordings of ragtime and early jazz bands. Bryan has released two solo piano albums Syncopated Musings and Breakin’ Notes, and recently collaborated with Brian Holland and Danny Coots for the CD and DVD Live from Buenos Aires. All are available in the Ragtime Store. Visit Bryan online at: http://www.bryanswright.com/