TOURING SUMMER 2022 - SUMMER 2023
“An explorer whose imagination is fired by bringing notice to the underrepresented and forgotten”
THE MUSIC
Prelude from Treemonisha
Weeping Willow
Peacherine Rag
Maple Leaf Rag
The Chrysanthemum
Bethena
The Entertainer
Reflection Rag
Magnetic Rag
A Picture Of Her Face
Euphonic Sounds
Solace
Heliotrope Bouquet
Eugenia
Elite Syncopations
Swipesy
A Real Slow Drag
Chart-topping American pianist Lara Downes reflects on the music of Scott Joplin through a 21st-century lens, revealing its many layers of genre-blurring subtlety and nuance.
Joplin is revered as The “King of Ragtime". He’s acknowledged as a classically-trained composer of concert music whose ambitions were denied in his own time. He was both of those things and more - an innovator who merged traditions and histories to make music at the crossroads of the American future. His story is ready to be retold.
The fullness of Joplin’s artistry shines through in Downes’ open-hearted interpretations, heard in arrangements that transcend genre and historical boundaries. The project features music from Joplin's opera Treemonisha and a fluid suite of rags and drags that capture the arc of history, the speed of progress, and the pull of nostalgia.
In Lara’s words: "There's a multi-faceted, timeless beauty to this music - a world of emotion and expression waiting to be experienced and embraced. I'm profoundly moved by Joplin's innovative creative vision, the depth of his blended musical roots and the breadth of what grew from them."