Lara Downes & John McWhorter

RAGTIME and RENAISSANCE - AMERICAN ROOTS

An evening of Music and Conversation

Chart-topping pianist and 2022 Classical Woman of the Year Lara Downes is joined by best-selling author and cultural commentator John McWhorter for an intimate evening of music and conversation reflecting on essential innovations in American music at the turn of the 20th century. Through music by composers like Scott Joplin, Harry T. Burleigh, and Charles Ives and others, Downes and McWhorter trace our American musical language back through a century of uneven progress to explore its blended roots and complex origins.

Downes performs music from her chart-topping album Reflections: Scott Joplin Reconsidered, as well as works by Harry T. Burleigh and Charles Ives, with McWhorter taking a surprise turn as a vocalist in songs by Irving Berlin and James Reese Europe.