Genuine Negro Ragtime: Scott Joplin’s African-American Identity

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.