A pulsating piano solo by a black composer published 125 years ago this fall became an unexpected bestseller, drew droves of young people to the piano, and became an enduring classic of American music ...

During Scott Joplin’s (1868-1917) brief career he was considered the “King of Ragtime Writers”. One of his first – and most popular pieces, the “Maple Leaf Rag,” became the genre’s first influential ...

When Richard Dowling was 9, the movie “The Sting” came out, with the famous Marvin Hamlisch soundtrack that included six ragtime songs composed by Scott Joplin. “I literally fell in love with ‘The ...

What everyone remembers about "The Sting," the 1973 movie about con men in 1930s Chicago, is the music. But that music — "The Entertainer" and the other wonderful Scott Joplin rags — was in itself a ...

There was a time when pianist Tom McDermott downplayed his affinity for ragtime composer Scott Joplin. For years, ragtime suffered from an image problem, a hokey stereotype of straw hats and Shakey’s ...