THE LIFE AND MUSIC OF SCOTT JOPLIN to Play Glen Street Theatre

Glen Street Theatre and John Buchanan join forces to present a brand new show, The Life and Music of Scott Joplin. Discover the incredible story of how Joplin became 'The King of Ragtime' accompanied by Australia's finest ragtime musicians playing two shows on 24 and 25 of July.

The production traces Scott Joplin's life and music from his early days as an itinerant piano player to his move to Sedalia, where in 1899 the local music publisher John Stark, issued his first ragtime composition Maple Leaf Rag. The story continues to St Louis and the 1904 World's Fair, then finally to New York, where he published his own opera, Treemonisha.

Melbourne's outstanding ragtime piano player Stephen Grant and musical director Craig Mitten head a select group of nine musicians, all specialising in the music from the classic ragtime era, featuring Phil Harper (clarinet) Marcus Holden (violin) Geoff Power (trombone) Sandra Mitten (flute, piccolo) Chris King (piano) Ed Bastion (string bass) and Tanya Christensen (vocals).

Narrated by Greg Poppleton, acting the character of music publisher John Stark, one of Joplin's strongest supporters during his all too short career, audiences will listen to the incredible story of how Joplin composed music unlike any ever written.

Ragtime dominated American popular music from the late 1890s until the late 1910s and was America's first uniquely national style of music, leading to generations of popular song and jazz. In 1974, the academy award-winning film The Sting bought back the ragtime music of Scott Joplin resulting in events unprecedented in American musical history. Never before had any composer's music been so acclaimed by both the popular and classical music worlds.

www.glenstreet.com.au

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