with Joshua Rifkin
Scott Joplin, son of formerly enslaved people, never forgot his roots. However many and varied strands of influence flowed into his music, he made repeatedly clear – in titles of his works, in his few known writings, and above all in the very subject of his valedictory opera Treemonisha – that the history and distinctive idioms of Black Americans lay at the core of all he undertook. In words and music, pianist Joshua Rifkin will create a rich and nuanced portrait of this essential American composer.