Scott Joplin: A Romance with Ragtime

Ragtime produces hysteria, insanity. This ragtime-era headline celebrated the world’s first global pop music craze.  Scott Joplin, the son of a slave, became the greatest of ragtime composers.  Now a legend, in his lifetime it took nearly 50 years to reach the kind of audiences he deserved, and the Oscar winning sound-track of The Sting.  Mike Denham talks about the lives of Joplin and his contemporaries, and illustrates at the keyboard some of their most fascinating and enduring works.

Mike Denham will talk about the lives of Joplin and his contemporaries, and illustrate at the keyboard some of their fascinating and enduring works.

Mike Denham was awarded 149 marks out of a possible 150 in his Grade 1 piano exam at the age of 8.  It’s all gone downhill from there!  He embraced jazz at university and nowadays leads the popular Sunset Café band and hosts his SpeakEasy Nights, at which he duets with some of the UK’s leading jazz musicians. Ragtime was and remains Mike’s first love, and he has performed rags at every opportunity – from St Pancras Station concourse to concert venues including St George’s Bristol and London’s Purcell Room.