Jacob Adams
Paul Asaro
Faye Ballard
Jeff & Anne Barnhart
Taslimah Bey
Rod Biensen
Bill Brown
Brooks Christensen
Danny Coots
Roy Eaton
Bill Edwards
Richard Egan
Tom Finger
Louis Gérin

Martin Spitznagel
St. Louis Ragtimers
Steve Standiford
Leanne Suffern
Monty Suffern
Adam Swanson
John Thompson
Stephanie Trick
Dave Tucker
TurpinTyme Ragsters
Luke Vandermyde
Roberta Wilkes
Bryan Wright
Brett Youens

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.

Anne and Jeff make their home in Mystic, CT, where they own and operate the Mystic Music Studio and Agency, managing Ivory&Gold, JAS’M, The Titan Hot 7 and many other musical groups.

Taslimah P. Bey began studying classical music at age 16, and switched to jazz in her senior year of high school. She initially 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. Later on, she formed Taslimah’s Ragtime Band, in an effort to expand upon previous ragtime presentations to include her band arrangements for ragtime compositions. For her efforts in performing the music and lecturing on the lives of these highly talented 20th century American composers, Taslimah received the award for the Preservation of African-American Music from the Societie for the Culturally Concerned in Detroit. The band includes a rotating roster of jazz greats Marcus Belgrave, Charlie Gabriel, Marion Hayden, Djallo Djakate, Dwight Adams, Tony Holland, Raycee Biggs and James Carter. Taslimah is a regular performer at Jazz and Ragtime Festivals across the country, including Preservation Hall in New Orleans and the Scott Joplin Festival in Sedalia, Missouri as well as the West Coast Ragtime Society’s festival in Sacramento. She has performed with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band in New Orleans and at the Bluenote Jazz Café in New York City. 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 band as follows: They 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…It cooked!!. … Folks, we have just got to get this band out to California. They’re truly special and a delight to know.

Taslimah can be heard on CD, Taslimah Bey, Live! & A Tribute to Ragtime, available on ITunes and CDBaby.com.

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 25 years to both adults and children.

Rod is also an active participant in ragtime piano performance as well as an accomplished cornet and tuba player. 

Hailing from Tin Can Alley, Bill Brown is a rare breed: an accordionist who plays Ragtime !!! Bill has been studying music for several years and has recently branched out into the Syncopated worlds of Ragtime, Bal Musette ( French cafe accordion music) and Gypsy Swing.

This year he will again be playing with Dave Tucker on the Red Hot Ivories and Steve Standiford on Forba [tuba], String Bass and Song...We make up the Bill Brown Ragtime Orchestra!!!

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Brooks Christensen, born and raised in St. Joseph, MO, began his piano career at the age of 6 and discovered ragtime while taking piano lessons at the age of 12 when the movie “The Sting” was a hit. Although his piano teacher cringed at him playing ragtime, they struck a deal that he could play rags as long as he didn’t stop playing the classics. At his sixth grade recital he played Chopin’s Revolutionary Etude and The Entertainer by Scott Joplin. Hence his classical days were over. Brooks was attending college at Northwest Missouri State University when he was given a chance to play professionally in Kansas City. His musical career started at the Bristol Bar and Grill on the Country Club Plaza in 1981. He played piano in sing along piano bars across the country for the next few years and is returning to Sedalia to perform for the first time since 1983. While playing in Kansas City, he performed with Jo Ann Castle and Ragtime Bob Darch. In 1984 he stopped playing and began his current career in sales. It wasn’t until a couple of years ago he stumbled upon the San Antonio Ragtime Society and began performing again.

Brooks currently resides in Humble Texas, a suburb of Houston and enjoys playing ragtime piano in San Antonio with the San Antonio Ragtime Society. His “day job” as he describes it, is selling custom engineered air pollution control systems and water treatment equipment to the power, petrochemical and refining industries. He jokes about working Tuesdays 10-2 and does take a two hour lunch, so he’s beginning to find time to practice again. He plays daily for his two miniature schnauzers Wolfgang and Grizzly and is thrilled to be in Sedalia once again playing his favorite music.

Danny Coots, started playing drums in 1963 at the age of 6 in northern New York. From that time he studied with Nick Baffaro, Rich Holly, Alan Koffman and Jim Peteresak in percussion. He continued his education at Crane School of Music and St. Lawrence University. Danny became adjunct faculty at St. Lawrence University, Clarkson University and Potsdam State University from the mid-1970s into the 1990s, while traveling and performing with such jazz greats as, Herb Ellis, Will Alger, Jack Mayhew, Speigle Wilcox, Mimi Hines, Phil Ford, Bob Darch, Terry Waldo and Pearl Kaufman.

In 1995, Danny moved to make his home in Nashville, Tennessee. There he joined the Jack Daniels Silver Cornet Band for 5 years, and helped to found the Titan Hot Seven while playing and recording with Dave Hungate, Bill Allred, Randy Reinhart, John Cocuzzi, John Sheridan, Dan Barrett, Allen Vache, Vince Giordano and Rebecca Kilgore, and, of course, Ivory&Gold. Danny has recorded extensively in Nashville, New York, Phoenix and Los Angeles on over 40 recordings, one of which received a Grammy in 2005. He has performed throughout the world, having appeared in 70 countries.

To learn more about Danny, visit his page at www.myspace.com.

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Anyone over 30 will recognize music written or produced by Roy Eaton. “You can trust your car to the man who wears the star.” All together now, “We’re having Beefaroni. It’s made from macaroni.” Roy’s Beefaroni served the brand for over twenty years. And, in September 2007, Advertising Age named that Texaco jingle from 1962 as the foundation for one of the twentieth century’s top 100 creative campaigns. Indeed, Roy Eaton’s music has made an indelible mark on advertising.

Roy Eaton was not born to write ad jingles. His father and mother, a mechanic and a domestic worker from Jamaica gave birth to Roy in 1930. Despite losing part of a finger on his right hand in an accident when he was three years old, Roy took up classical piano when he was six. He first played Carnegie Hall in 1937 and he went on to win the first Kosciusko Foundation Chopin Award in 1950.

When Young & Rubicam hired Roy Eaton as a copywriter and jingle composer in 1955, he became “the first black at a major agency, with a creative function on general accounts”, according to Stephen Fox’s, Mirror Makers: A History of American Advertising and Its Creators (University of Illinois Press, 1997, page 278). Roy Eaton’s undeniable talent and drive cracked the color barrier at last. He worked on just about every kind of campaign Y&R produced: Jell-O, Cheer, Johnson & Johnson, General Electric, Spic and Span, Beech Nut Gum, etc.

By 1959—having barely survived an automobile accident that, tragically, took the life of his new bride—Roy had moved to Benton & Bowles as music director and by 1968 he was appointed Vice President. Roy left Benton & Bowles in 1980 to open his own music production company. Michael Jackson earned a Citation from President Reagan for music produced by Roy’s company for the dramatic “Anti-Drunk Driving” campaign. Roy’s sound design on “Crashing Glasses” from this campaign also won multiple awards. Soon, he returned to the concert stage. Of “The Meditative Chopin”, Roy’s 1986 solo concert in Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, the Times’ Tim Page wrote: “The cumulative effect was deeply satisfying. One came much closer to the heart of Chopin—and by extension, to music itself” (NYT, February 10, 1986). Since then, Roy has toured internationally, recorded albums featuring the work of Chopin, Joplin, Gershwin, and others (Amazon lists six); and is on the faculty of Manhattan School of Music. Not only does he tour internationally, but he regularly plays pro bono for nursing homes, churches, and charities. On March 26, Roy was inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame. Olivier Dahan, the Academy Award winning director, recently chose three Chopin Preludes from one of Roy’s Albums for the background music on his upcoming film “My Own Love Song” starring Renee Zelwegger and Forest Whitaker.

Roy tells a story about his mother. She taught him from a young age that, to overcome prejudice, he “needed to do 200% to get credit for 100%”. “So,” Roy says, “that became my lifetime mantra.”

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. Bill recently finished an extensive book on the famous march composer and publisher E.T. Paull due in stores later this year. Stay tuned for more on this famous but often overlooked composer as 2011 approaches.

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. Bill has 38 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 15 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 Joplin’s collected piano works. 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. While focusing on the organ in recent years, he has decided he’s missed the piano too much and has started playing it more - rediscovering Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Schubert and Debussy, while still playing, and loving the wonderful “ragged time” music. He enjoys returning to Sedalia every year, where he can spend all day listening to the ”happiest music of all” and then indulge in his other great love by spending his evenings cycling on the Katy Trail.

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Louis Gérin was born and lives in Quebec City. He has a bachelor of music-piano (University of Montréal) and music education (Laval University, Quebec City ). He also studied in Boston at the Kodaly Center of America and the Berklee School of Music. He worked as pianist, keyboardist and singer all over the province of Québec for many years. He is now teaching music in elementary schools in Quebec City. In 1998, he founded the band Hot Potatoes with his wife, singer Johanne Gagné. This band is devoted to ragtime and American songs from 1900-1930. Over the last ten years, Hot Potatoes gave many performances in the province of Québec. The band also presents regularly a special program for elementary school students.

In 2005, the band released a first CD entitled Heliotrope Bouquet. In 2008, Louis Gérin released with his band and additional musicians a second CD, Le Ragtime de Québec, a tribute to Quebec City for its 400th birthday. The CD includes 8 original instrumentals composed by Louis Gérin mostly in the ragtime style. As a ragtime composer, Louis Gérin tries to keep the spirit of the classical style in the Scott Joplin tradition. He also experiments blending ragtime with other styles of music infusing his own French Canadian heritage.

Vocalist Ann Gibson has been gracing Bay Area stages for over 10 years with her velvety voiced renditions of tunes from the 1920’s, ‘30’s and ‘40’s. She has worked as staff vocalist for the Black Tie Jazz Orchestra during that time, and has also appeared with other groups such as the Martini Brothers Band and the Peninsula Pops Orchestra. Her love of American popular song has also brought her together with great piano artists such as Frederick Hodges and Tom Bopp. She has also produced music reviews for the Art Deco Society of California acclaimed for their originality of content and attention to authentic detail in presenting popular music from between the great wars.

Raised in a musical family in Pleasant Hill, Ca, Miss Gibson was classically trained as a child on piano, French horn and also sang with several local choirs. Her father, local band leader and composer Bob Soder was instrumental in her development as he exposed her to many different forms of music, from classical to jazz. She always claims having got her start in a late night pinochle game with Dizzy Gillespie at the age of 8. She has performed as a child in local theatrical productions and was a character at Children’s Fairyland in Oakland.

Ann Gibson’s singing style has been compared to the likes of Alice Faye, Frances Langford and Lee Wiley. She has performed with the Black Tie Jazz Orchestra at Davies Symphony Hall, introduced the Big Band postage stamps for the U S Postal service, and the Herb Caen Memorial. The BTJO also regularly plays for the Art Deco Preservation Ball, the International Diplomacy Council Ball and at many other large events in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has performed for the Park Service at the 100th anniversary of Camp Curry and the 75th anniversary of the Ahwanee Hotel in Yosemite, and now is asked back on a yearly basis for their annual “Heritage Holidays” each spring. Her recent appearances include Maxwell DeMille’s Cicada Club in Los Angeles, The Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival in Sedalia MO and the West Coast Ragtime Festival in Sacramento CA.

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William Harvill is working on his Ph.D. in Musicology from the University of Kansas, although he currently resides in Johnson City, TN.  During his time in Lawrence, KS, he 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.

Renowned as a pianist and singer, Frederick Hodges is recognized by audiences around the world for his mastery of diverse repertoire from Liszt to Gershwin. He has appeared on national television, radio, and in several Hollywood films. He is also a sought-after silent film accompanist for both live performances and on DVD. He performs regularly at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum.

His extensive repertoire includes the great European classical masters as well as all the best ragtime, stride, and novelty piano solo pieces, including the complete works of Roy Bargy, Phil Ohman, Zez Confrey, and Adam Carroll, as well as less-known works by Scott Joplin, James Scott, George L. Cobb and Charley Straight. His distinguished discography, mainly on Stomp Off and Aristophone Records, includes piano works by Lucky Roberts, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Phil Ohman, Arthur Schutt, and Scott Joplin.

Frederick Hodges is a native of California, where he began his piano studies at age eight. At thirteen, he began intense classical piano study with two famed San Francisco Bay Area piano teachers who were both graduates of the Juilliard School of Music: Virginia Moore and Trula Whelan. At age seventeen, he won the prestigious Music Teachers of California Young Artist Award. At twenty, while still an undergraduate at the University of California at Berkeley, he joined Don Neely’s Royal Society Jazz Orchestra as pianist. Since then, he has toured extensively. Frederick has enjoyed a career playing solo piano for society parties and holding down steady engagements at legendary San Francisco establishments such as L’Etoile in the Huntington Hotel, Masons in the Fairmont Hotel, and the Ritz Carlton Hotel.

In 2001, Frederick earned a doctorate in history from Oxford University in England, where he lived for five years. Frederick has participated in many prestigious festivals including in Sacramento Jazz Jubilee, 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. 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, CO, later performing in Shakey’s Pizza Parlor, Columbia, MO with husband Mark on Banjo and trombone.

Foremost being a housewife, mother and grandmother, Nora’s occupation has been that of piano and organ teacher starting as a teen-ager under the tutelage of her mother, a conservatory trained musician. Her unusual sight reading ability also led to her being in demand as a recital accompanist at the University of MO and surrounding area for many years. She was keyboardist for the MO Symphony Society Summer Orchestra and also a church organist. While at Central Methodist College, she and her students gave Ragtime Recitals. Her degrees include BS Music ED, MM Piano Performance, MM Pipe Organ Performance, and PhD in Music Education. In more recent years Nora performs in concert with the “TurpinTyme Ragsters” of Kansas City in a five state area. Nora co-authored with Nan Bostick, an annotated lexicon, “Ragtime’s Women Composers,” which appeared in the Ragtime Ephemeralist 2002. In June 2002, at Sedalia, MO, Nora received the prestigious Scott Joplin International Ragtime Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement in Ragtime. She has produced seven recordings and four music folios of ragtime composed mostly 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 1960s he took up 4-string tenor banjo, taking lessons from a folk banjo teacher in Columbia, MO and at the 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 and 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.

Mark and Nora, as “Ragtime Razzmatazz,” also performed ragtime regularly for many years on the live KOMU-TV talk show, “Pepper and Friends.” Nora and Mark also perform weekly and for special events with The Junkyard Jazz Band in Lawrence, KS and at Jazz Banjo Events around the US. Ragtime performances include the Scott Joplin Festival, Sedalia, MO; James Scott Ragtime Festival, Carthage, MO; West Coast Ragtime Festival, Sacramento, Ragtime in Randall, Iowa; Ragtime for Tulsa Foundation; Classic Ragtime Society, Indianapolis; Scott Joplin House State Historic Site, St. Louis; Boone Co. Historical Society, Columbia, MO. Mark and Nora have recently produced a banjo/piano/tuba CD, “Mostly Ragtime.”

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Ivory&Gold, is a musical ensemble celebrating the greatest examples of American jazz, ragtime, Broadway and Gospel hits. The group consists of Anne Barnhart on flute, Jeff Barnhart on piano and vocals, and Danny Coots on percussion and drums. Ivory&Gold has played to packed houses on 6 of the 7 continents, excluding Antarctica. Their cruise appearances are sponsored exclusively by the entertainment agency Jazzdagen Tours (www.jazzdagen.com). Ivory&Gold was born in 2001, first carving out a reputation as a talented husband-and-wife team. As a duo, Ivory&Gold boasts 6 recordings: 2 ragtime CDs, an all-Broadway ballad recording, a collection of love songs and a Christmas CD. While still appearing as a duo, Ivory&Gold is enjoying great feedback from its trio appearances with four recordings to their credit.

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Ed Judd’s was a student of Arnold Jacobs, tubaist for the Chicago Symphony, a scholarship student at the National Music Camp at Interlochen, and tubaist for three minor symphonies. After a career in the science teaching profession, Ed is picking up his tuba playing from where he left off as a youth. Ed recently has been playing with a classical chamber music ensemble, a concert band, and an American standards jazz band. Ed’s primary mission is to add to the performances of other ragtime players and enhance marvelous character on the bass notes in ragtime. Another aspiration for Ed is to play solo tuba as a unique and interesting way to perform ragtime melodies.

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Sue Keller began her ragtime obsession in 1974, after graduating from DePauw University with a degree in Music and Theatre.  Since then, Sue has treated audiences to her piano and vocal performances throughout the world, from the grand opening of Fanueil Hall Marketplace in Boston Harbor to the fabled Mikado nightclub in Tokyo.

Back in the USA, Sue has been recognized as one of the world’s top ragtime pianists.  She is a member of the board of directors for the Old Time Piano Championship in Peoria, Illinois, and frequently judges that event. Sue teaches piano, as well, and this year, she has a student entering for the first time.  Sue is especially proud of her work as artistic director for the Scott Joplin festival, having performed that function for the last six years.  She’s looking forward to playing more and organizing less.

She currently has 13 CDs out, including two Blues recordings and two Christmas CDs, and is hard at work on number 14.  Those of you who are familiar with Sue know that she has eclectic tastes, and is just at home with Broadway tunes as she is with Brazilian sambas.

A native of Ohio, Scott Kirby began his study of music at the age of six, and continued formal piano instruction for seventeen years.  He worked under Robert Howat of Wittenberg University of Ohio, and Sylvia Zaremba at the Ohio State University.  After obtaining an English degree from Ohio State University, Kirby moved to New Orleans and began his professional music career.  In the following four years, he recorded the complete rags of Scott Joplin, and made his debut at all of the major ragtime festival in the United States, as well as festival in Belgium, France, Norway and Hungary.

Kirby has served as Music Director of the Scott Joplin Ragtime festival in Sedalia, MO and of the Rocky Mountain Ragtime and American Music Festival in Boulder, CO, as well as director of the San Juan Islands Ragtime Institute.  His appearances include a segment on CBS News Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood in 1998, and the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.  Kirby co-founded a record company (Viridiana Productions, LLC), has recorded 25 CDs, and has composed over 150 original works for piano and other instruments.

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Lou LeBrun began studying accordion at age of 7. This is her 5th year with the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival. She is an entertainer in the Springfield, Missouri area, playing Ragtime, Classical, Jazz, Dixieland, Polkas, Boogie-Woogie, and Oldies. All who have heard her enjoy her bubbling personality, career anecdotes, and unique musical styling. The Festival audience is in for a treat as Lou performs Ragtime using the capabilities of the acoustic accordion, rather than the new electronic models, which attempt to emulate the piano. Her goal is to show her audience that the accordion is good for something other than polkas.

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.

Lou has recently joined the UMKC Community Accordion Orchestra, under the direction of Prof. Joan Sommers. She has performed at the Dallas National Accordion Convention for the last five years and the Las Vegas International Accordion Convention for the last two years. She has been described as exuberant, energetic, and the only accordion player who dances when she plays. The folks who have seen and heard her say that she is “awesome”, almost becoming part of the accordion.

Carl Sonny Leyland was born & raised on the South Coast of England close to the city of Southampton. As a child he was drawn to the American music which he heard on LP records his father would play. It was here that he developed an appreciation for Dixieland jazz, the rock & roll of the 1950s & the country music of Jimmie Rodgers & Hank Williams.

At 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). Within 3 months he would be performing in public and shortly after would become a member of a respected local group “The Bob Pearce Blues Band.” Initially influenced by boogie woogie greats Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson & Meade ‘Lux’ Lewis, Leyland went on to fully explore the piano blues genre, becoming an authority on early & obscure styles such as those played by Cow Cow Davenport, Little Brother Montgomery, Montana Taylor & Speckled Red to name a few.

By 2003, his repertoire had expanded to include ragtime & early jazz styles which 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 such a natural synergy between the three musicians that a recording of their first performance was good enough to issue on a CD (Broadway Boogie - now out of print). Their versatile combination has proven successful over the years. They have recorded six CDs to date (including a collaboration with Nathan James & Ben Hernandez) & continue to work steadily on the festival scene.

Leyland has also continued his involvement with the rockabilly scene & plays each year in the backing band at Viva Las Vegas & more recently at the Rockabilly Rave USA. In this capacity he has worked with such notables as Janis Martin, Ruth Brown, Billy Lee Riley & Carl Mann.

Whether playing solo or with his trio, 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 be limit himself to this & prefers to let each performance be an opportunity to say something new.

Despite spending childhood in the company of his turn of the century grandparents, occasionally visited by a former silent movie piano playing relative, Peter Lundberg was pitifully unaware of the existence of ragtime. His piano teacher, an elderly lady imported from ancient Austria, kept his fingers firmly in the Czerny fold.

In 1957 the ground breaking volume “They All Played Ragtime” by Rudi Blesh and Harriet Janis opened his eyes to a higher level of musical syncopation. A time of frantic search for information followed. A mimeographed newsletter, the “Rag Times”, issued by Russ Cassidy and Trebor Tichenor, provided feed for the hungry. A letter to Charles H Thompson, the last St Louis professor, led to a modest correspondence. Joseph Lamb turned the address of the inquisitive Swedish youngster over to Bob Darch who was as ever looking for recruits. Finally in 1963, Peter decided he had to see for himself. Subsequently he spent three months off and on Greyhound buses on a round trip of the US and Toronto, meeting the pioneer ragtime clubbists, veterans of the era, talking in places and people. Back home followed a succession of families and careers. In the ragtime revival of the seventies, Bob Darch was instrumental in bringing Peter over to the US mainland for saloon jobs, college tours, and as time went by, festivals, in Sedalia, Carthage, Alex Bay. For some time, Peter did frequent appearances while back home keeping up the appearance of a well adjusted television director/producer.

Today he runs his own images and words production company, fights nature at his small boyhood farm and is less well adjusted. His quest for the perfect “Maple Leaf Rag” remains unresolved.

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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 9th appearance at the Scott Joplin Festival in 2010 and is also taking on the role of Artistic Director.  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, is happy to be back in Sedalia for her 2nd year of spreading the joyful sounds of ragtime throughout Missouri. She is a member of the Friends of Scott Joplin, and can be heard playing piano at their monthly Ragtime Rendezvous in St. Louis. In addition to performing on her own, Susan loves to share the music by accompanying vocal and instrumental soloists and ensembles. Her partner and favorite soloist, Dina Young, is joining her this year on clarinet, and they have some fun music in store for you.

Susan continues to perform with other musical groups in St. Louis, including singing with CHARIS – The St. Louis Women’s Chorus, and playing flute, piano and percussion with BandTogether. Somehow she also manages to find time to go to work every day at the Siteman Cancer Center in St. Louis, hoping that someday she will cure lymphoma with ragtime music! !

Larisa Migachyov was born in Russia and began her classical piano training at the age of 5. After immigrating to the United States, she quit music for many years, until, by pure chance, she saw a flyer advertising the San Antonio Ragtime Society on a supermarket bulletin board. She attended one of the meetings and was instantly hooked. A year later, she composed her very first rag, the Purple Chicken Rag, and premiered it at the 2006 Scott Joplin Festival.

Larisa has composed 25 rags, mostly in a very traditional style, and mostly named after various types of food. Since that first performance at the 2006 Scott Joplin Festival, she has performed at many other ragtime festivals, and in fact, helped start a new festival in San Antonio, TX. She has released two CD’s, “A Heap of Rags” in 2007, and “Oh, That Ragtime Chick!” in 2009. The latter CD features 13 of her own compositions.

Larisa’s “day jobs” have included mechanical engineering, design consulting, literary translation, and running a math tutoring agency. She currently works at a law firm in Palo Alto, CA.

Gerald Mohr beganre-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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With the exception of four years of military duty, Galen Parker has spent his entire life in Rochester, NY. He started his ragtime career at the tender age of 10 learning “The Crazy Otto Rag” by ear. Then for a number of years other realities took over his life, but eventually Galen came back to the piano.

Twelve years ago he retired from a 35 year engineering career with Eastman Kodak Company, and has since been focusing with a vengeance on learning ragtime and stride piano literature. Galen performs at ragtime festivals, private parties, and nursing homes.

Will Perkins is a 17-year-old pianist from the small town of Riverbank, California – located in the Great Central Valley of California. Having played the trumpet for 3 years, by the age of 11, Will decided to start taking piano lessons and soon realized a firm attachment to music. Soon thereafter he learned to play almost every instrument in the brass section of the band and had aspirations to continue with the Baritone as his main instrument. He, nor his band director, had counted on the piano taking over, when he was so captivated by the music of Ragtime at the age of 13, upon hearing it in the PBS series Baseball. Unsatisfied with the simplified version of Maple Leaf Rag his teacher supplied him with, he ran out to the nearest music store to purchase the first book he could find with the name “Scott Joplin” on it. Since this, he has given up all other instruments in favour of the piano and has been blessed to play at The Eau Claire Ragtime Festival, The West Coast Ragtime Festival, and is presently in his third year at The Scott Joplin Festival.

Entering his senior year in High School, Will enjoys playing Golf, Basketball, and is dangerously close to attaining his Eagle Scout. Having placed first in The West Coast Ragtime Festival’s Youth Competition in 2007 and 2008, Will has quickly emerged as one of the young rising talents on the ragtime scene today. Last January, he had the pleasure of recording his first CD “A Little Bit of Everything in Ragtime” at the home of Chris and Jack Bradshaw and it is currently available in the Ragtime Store for sales.

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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 11 years $89,500 has been donated to local non-profits. In 2001, founded the Chippewa Valley Ragtime Society cvragtime@charter.net.

Jim is a retired WI Licensed Clinical Social Worker serving in the Peace Corps (Dominican Republic ’63-’65). He currently performs interactive, educational concerts or background music for all occasions. He has performed at the Eau Claire, Lake Superior, Scott Joplin, West Coast and Blind Boone Ragtime Festivals. In 2009 he received the Scott Joplin International Ragtime Foundation award “for outstanding achievement in research, performance and advancement of ragtime”. With 34 states under his belt, his goal is to perform publicly in all 50 states. Contact at 715-834-6897.

John Remmers resides in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and 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 forthe 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 high school student from Dixon, Missouri. He began classical piano lessons at age six and got hooked on ragtime four years later. Wesley has played at ragtime festivals and contests around Missouri as well as in California, Illinois, Oklahoma and Wisconsin. Wesley won the junior division of the World Championship of Old Time Piano Playing Contest in 2007, came in second in 2008, and won again in 2009. He was honored for this achievement with a Resolution in the Missouri State House of Representatives. His first CD, “A New Generation in Ragtime,” is now available.

Dalton Ridenhour, a native of St. James, Missouri, began musical training at the age of eight. He quickly developed an interest in Ragtime and first performed at the Scott Joplin International Ragtime Festival at the age of nine. For the next eight years, he was a featured performer at many Ragtime festivals around the country. By the age of sixteen, exposure to traditional jazz and ragtime styles had led Dalton to the music of Charlie Parker. He attended the Interlochen Arts Camp, where he decided to make music a lifelong study.

Upon graduating high school in 2000, Dalton began furthering his education at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, where he studied privately with Joanne Brackeen, Danilo Perez, and David Azarian. At Berklee, Dalton was exposed to an abundance of new music, and he was given the opportunity to play on numerous recording sessions, concerts, and gigs that involved styles of music ranging from country and pop, to jazz. In 2003, he graduated from Berklee with a B.M. in Piano Performance.

Dalton then completed a Master’s Degree in Jazz and Contemporary Media at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, where he studied privately with Harold Danko. While at Eastman, Dalton was also awarded a Downbeat Student Music Award for Outstanding Soloist in the college division, and Eastman’s Shirmer Prize award for jazz performance.

Following Eastman, Dalton moved to Columbia, MO for a year where he served as an accompanist for the Stephen’s College Dance Department. He also taught and played gigs around the area with Lisa Rose and Hot House and various other groups. Currently, Dalton resides in New York City where he is a Web Developer for R/GA.            

Barron Ryan began playing the piano at age 4 and quickly demonstrated talent at the instrument, making his concert stage debut at age 11. His father was accompanying world-renowned bass-baritone Simon Estes at a series of Iowa concerts. After one rehearsal, Barron sat down at the piano to play. Impressed, Estes featured Barron in the next concert.

A two-time prizewinner in the Sarkeys Young Pianists Competition and recipient of the Senior Arts Award at Holland Hall School, this National Merit Finalist attended The University of Oklahoma, where, as a piano performance major, he distinguished himself graduating Summa Cum Laude from the OU Honors College with a Bachelor of Music degree. Other university accolades include the Outstanding School of Music Senior award, Outstanding Undergraduate Piano Student (twice), and School of Music 2008 Concerto Competition winner.

Barron has enjoyed rave reviews and an increasing fan base since his 2007 professional debut. Currently he performs with his father, Donald Ryan, as the piano duo ‘Ryan & Ryan.’            

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.

A recent inductee into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall Of Fame, Donald Ryan continues an active career in music as a concert and recording artist, composer, arranger, and teacher. He also serves as music advisor to the Ragtime For Tulsa Foundation (Oklahoma) and frequently performs in schools under its auspices. He is, in addition, widely regarded as a premier special event pianist and has played for heads of state and other American and foreign dignitaries.            

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Morgan Siever is thirteen years old and lives in Carlyle, Illinois. This is Morgan’s fifth year performing at the Scott Joplin Festival here in Sedalia. This was her first year performing at the Eau Claire Ragtime Festival in Wisconsin and the Festival in Tinley Park, Illinois. She will also be performing at the West Coast Ragtime Festival held in Sacramento, California. She performed at the Festival for the Classic Ragtime Society of Indianapolis in August 2009. At the St. Louis Ragtime Competition at Meramec College, she received a 1st place for playing Tiger Rag as well as last year when she played I’ve Found a New Baby. At the St. Louis Ragtime Piano Competition sponsored by the Friends of Scott Joplin at Forest Park Community College, Morgan has received an Honorable Mention in 2005 and 2nd place in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 1st place in 2009. At the World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest in Peoria, Illinois, Morgan participated with the juniors (17 years old and younger) in 2005, placed 4th in 2006, 7th place in 2007, and 3rd in 2008 and 2009. 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.

Martin Spitznagel has been hailed as a “remarkable, exhausting, and utterly astonishing” talent. A native of Pittsburgh, Martin discovered his love of the piano and a curious music called “ragtime” early, winning a Yamaha Disklavier piano at the age of 14 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 music legend Max Morath declared “a stunning piece of work.”

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.

The St. Louis Ragtimers were formed in September, 1961. Together, they researched and studied various forms of American music with emphasis on classic rags, folk rags of Missouri and early Traditional Jazz. The group has produced six CD recordings.

Pianist and music researcher, Trebor Jay Tichenor, has developed one of the finest Ragtime libraries in the country. Trebor teaches a Ragtime course at Washington University and has co-authored a book on Ragtime. Trebor has also produced several Ragtime music folios and CD recordings.

Don Franz first played the tuba as a member of “The Chicago Stompers “during their six-week European tour in 1959. Upon return to St. Louis, Don became acquainted with Trebor Tichenor, banjoist Al Stricker and Bill Mason at the St. Louis Jazz Club.

Bill Mason played cornet in 1948 aboard the legendary sternwheeler “Gordon C. Greene”, as it cruised the Mississippi, Ohio and Tennessee rivers. Bill is a fan of Louis Armstrong and Bix Beiderbecke.

Al Stricker became interested in Ragtime music when he met Trebor Tichenor in 1959. Al sings, plays the banjo and kazoo, and provides audiences with historical narratives about Ragtime.

The Ragtimers first engagement was at the “Natchez Queen” in Gaslight Square in September 1961. In 1965 the Ragtimers moved to the St. Louis Riverfront, aboard the recently restored Goldenrod Showboat. The Ragtimers hosted Annual Ragtime Festivals aboard the Goldenrod for more than three decades.

The Goldenrod Showboat (the largest showboat ever built) brought live theater, music and entertainment to river towns on the Mississippi, Missouri and Ohio rivers for almost a century. For additional information, contact Don Franz at franz.d@sbcglobal.net

Steve Standiford returns to Sedalia as the Ragtime Utility Infielder. You may catch him on solo piano, playing tuba with the Bill Brown Ragtime Orchestra, or this year joining Ragtime RazzMaTazz on tuba, Master of Ceremonies here or there, and who knows where else. He offered to dance with goats or give Dave Majchrzak a tuba lesson – fortunately, these were declined for the better good. When not playing ragtime, Steve is a cancer surgeon in Philadelphia, living with his wife Gen, stepdaughter Caitlyn, and his “new” 1900 Mason and Hamlin Style 9 piano, the happy replacement after a fire this summer led to the loss of his beloved Hardman grand (and a kitchen….)

Leanne Suffern hails from Candelo, Australia, where the sheep and cows outnumber the population of 380 people about one hundred to one. Although this picturesque area is something of a ragtime piano wasteland, Leanne has developed into a most accomplished ragtime pianist, and regularly heads up the ragtime section of the Merimbula Jazz festival held in a nearby seaside resort. She visited the Scott Joplin festival two years ago, and made the best of limited opportunities to show her talent with some impressive performances. She was interviewed and featured on David Refkin’s ragtime radio show, who also used her as a comparative example of learning ragtime in relative isolation. This year Leanne is returning to the Scott Joplin festival and looks forward to entertaining attendees with her wonderful renditions of less played ragtime material from composers such as Charles Hunter and Winifred Atwell. P.S. Candelo is about 250 miles south of Sydney.             

Monty Suffern is an Australian who currently resides in Texas where he leads a retired life, walking his dogs, building an airplane and practicing his piano whenever possible. He has been playing piano more than 50 years, having started on his seventh birthday, and concentrates mainly on ragtime and stride styles. Although he took piano lessons for a few years as a boy, he is mostly self taught, and endeavors to use as much of the piano as he can, and as many notes as he can fit into two hands. He has become a regular performer at ragtime festivals over the past few years and has played in festivals in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri, California and Texas. More recently he has turned his hand to composing, and is sure to present some of his works during the Scott Joplin festival.             

Adam Swanson, from the small town of Shenandoah, Iowa, is rapidly becoming known as one of the world’s foremost performers and historians of ragtime and early American popular music. He discovered ragtime on his grandparents’ “Web-TV” and has played the piano about seven years. Adam has taken piano lessons from Waleed Howrani of Ann Arbor, Michigan, a graduate of the Moscow State Conservatory. Although he is only eighteen years old, he has been a featured performer at ragtime and jazz festivals across the United States. In 2007 Adam appeared alongside John Arpin at the Bohem Ragtime and Jazz Festival in the Republic of Hungary. He is the youngest winner of the World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest held in Peoria, Illinois, having won the contest in 2008 and 2009. Most recently, Adam recorded a duet album with the great Johnny Maddox. They perform together in the Diamond Belle Saloon at the Strater Hotel in Durango, Colorado. Adam is also an avid rail-fan, collects antique sheet music, records, and piano rolls. His CDs are available at cdbaby.com.

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John Thompson began playing the accordion at the age of eight at the Marsh Accordion Studio in Topeka, KS back in the ‘60’s. He has always enjoyed the diversity of styles in the accordion repertoire, and finds his broad scope of musical interests very useful in playing with world music band Voyager and Celtic group Rowan, both out of Lawrence, Kansas. John also studied tuba at the University of Kansas in the late ‘70’s, and later received a degree in Culinary Arts from Johnson County Community College. Over the years he has taught accordion and played in a variety of bands with styles ranging from Salsa to Swing. In his non-musical life John is a chef at a catering business. Playing Joplin tunes with Ed Judd on tuba is John’s most recent passion.

Award-winning pianist and recording artist Stephanie Trick is a leading authentic interpreter of stride piano today. One of the few female stride pianists to command mastery of this technically and physically demanding jazz piano style, she has been called “the next rising star in the stride world” and one of “only three or four people alive today” with the potential to recreate “the magic” of stride legend masters such as James P. Johnson, Fats Waller, Willie “The Lion” Smith, Art Tatum, and Jelly Roll Morton.

A classically trained pianist and organist, Stephanie began playing piano at the age of five. A year later, she was already performing, and by the time she was ten, she had won her first major competition. In high school, she discovered her true passion – stride piano – and released her first CD before graduating. While in college, it became clear to Stephanie that she wanted to pursue stride and classic jazz styles professionally.

With a music style resembling a mixture of old blues and boogie woogie plus Fats Waller and Teddy Wilson, Stephanie has performed all over the United States as well as in Europe in a variety of venues, including The Sheldon Concert Hall in St. Louis, Missouri, Philippe Carment’s music studio in Normandy, France, Mimi Blais & Friends’ Concert in Versailles, Missouri, and the West Coast Ragtime Festival in Sacramento, California. In 2008, she was also chosen to perform at the international Stride and Swing Summit in Boswil, Switzerland, where she teamed up with five of the world’s best stride pianists: Louis Mazetier, Rossano Sportiello, Paolo Alderighi, Jon Weber, and Olaf Polziehn.

Choosing to explore the music deeply, she continues her extensive studies of stride and classic jazz. In order to capture, internalize, and express the joyful sounds of stride, Stephanie enjoys spending many hours a day at the keyboard, while continuing to listen to and study the stride piano legends. In an effort to bring a greater appreciation for traditional jazz and its integral role in the development of American culture, Stephanie shares stories about stride masters of the past during her performances and gives presentations to students in special ragtime and stride programs.

Stephanie will be re-releasing her 2006 CD "Ragtime Tricks" with additional tracks at this year's Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival.  She is also arranging, composing, and adding new pieces to her repertoire.

Dave Tucker lives in Alexandria, Virginia and conducts patent research for a living. Since 1970 Dave has played piano specializing in ragtime and early jazz. In the early 1990s he took up piano performance with great enthusiasm and began to expand his playing into other early jazz forms such at stride and novelty piano.

Dave is an internationally-known performer of early jazz styles. Recently, while expanding his ragtime repertoire, Dave has explored many other forms of early syncopated music including European novelty piano and the Harlem stride of James P. Johnson, Willie “The Lion” Smith and Fats Waller.

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 and 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 as a soloist and band member. Of recent significance, in late 2008 Dave Tucker formed The Hot Society Orchestra of Washington as its Director, a 1920s-1940s 11-piece orchestra performing regularly at the Spanish Ballroom and The Embassy of France, among other venues (hotsociety.net). In addition, Dave performs with Reverie Jazz (www.reveriejazz.com). Dave also works with other musicians and vocalists for various projects in the D.C. area, and maintains a website covering his activities at www.dave-tucker.com.

TurpinTyme Ragsters

Gary Richmond, cornet, is the leader of the TurpinTyme Ragsters. He has also performed and toured with the orchestras of Tommy Dorsey and Ray Anthony. Gary leads and has organized many other groups including the Blue & Gray Brass Brigade, a civil war era music group and a 14 piece German band, Festhaus-Musikanten. He also co-leads the Trilogy Big Band, which has two CDs out on the Seabreeze label. His education background includes Kansas University and the Conservatory of Music, Kansas City. Gary maintains a full performance calendar playing shows, weddings, dances, etc.

Greg Briggs, clarinet, is a freelance woodwind performer in the Kansas City area and has performed with many national artists and performs regularly at venues like Starlight Theater and numerous other ensembles. He is also a clinician/private instructor in local schools and colleges. His educational background includes a B.M. in woodwind performance and a B.M.E.

Mark Cohick, tenor sax is a freelance woodwind performer in the Kansas City area and has performed with many national artists including international tours of “West Side Story” and “A Chorus Line”. He is also a clinician/private instructor in local schools and colleges. His educational background includes a B.M. in woodwind performance and a B.M.E.

Dan Strom is the trombonist for the TurpinTyme Ragsters but also performs with the “New Red Onion Jazz Babies” in the Kansas City area. He has performed with many national artists at local venues. He is also a clinician/private instructor in local schools and colleges. His educational background includes a B.M.

Nora Hulse, a top rated solo pianist, performs and lectures at ragtime festivals around the USA while seeking out unrevealed ragtime gems by women composers. She also plays ragtime regularly on a unique local “live” TV show, Pepper and Friends, on KOMU-TV in Columbia, MO. Her academic background includes a Ph.D. in music education, Master’s in Piano Performance, Master’s in Organ Performance, and Bachelor of Science in Music Education.

Steve Hoog, tuba, has played almost every kind of music possible, from orchestral to jazz to rock, polka, blues, klezmer, and bluegrass. When not playing tuba, he tosses a great pizza at Waldo Pizza in Kansas City. Steve has a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education, from the U.M.K.C. Conservatory of Music, and a Master’s in Tuba Performance from the University of Akron (OH).

Mike Thompson is the drummer for the TurpinTyme Ragsters but also has a full schedule performing with many local Kansas City groups and is the regular touring drummer for Jim “Gomer” Nabors. Mike recently returned to the Kansas City area after several successful years performing in the Los Angles area. He has the ability to play styles from big band to jazz to Polkas. He is also a clinician/private instructor in local schools and colleges.

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Luke Vandermyde is 16 years old and a Junior at Reed-Custer High School in Braidwood, IL. He is a member of the National Honor Society and participates in numerous extracurricular activities which include: Math Team, WYSE, Honors Combo Jazz Band, Concert Band, Marching Band, Pit Band, Concert Choir, Madrigals, Football and Wrestling. Luke’s love of Rag-time music started when he was a toddler, listening to his father play tunes such as The Gladiolus Rag & The Maple Leaf Rag on the piano. Luke entered his first Old Time Piano Playing Contest held in Peoria, IL when he was 13 years old. He was in awe of the amazing talent of so many of the piano players he met and has been hooked ever since. He has since competed every year in Peoria, IL and has played at the Scott Joplin Festival in Sedalia, MO and the West Coast Rag Festival in Sacramento, CA.

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Roberta L. Wilkes has been around music and theatre all her life. She traveled with her parents on tent repertoire shows from the time of her birth until 1960. She grew up listening to both her father and her maternal grandmother play ragtime, both of whom had a natural stride bass style. Roberta has composed four rags and is working on a fifth. She has put together a one-woman show using vaudeville skits and songs from her experiences, as well as slides of tents and performers, which is available for performance in small to medium size venues. Roberta is a lawyer, with a practice in Kansas City, Kansas, and Tahlequah, Oklahoma.

Bryan Wright, of Lynchburg, Virginia, is presently a graduate student at the University of Pittsburgh 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, 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 new CD, “Breakin’ Notes,” features a mixture of classic and modern rags, piano novelties, and the Bix Beiderbecke suite of modern piano solos. It 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. 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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