Return to the Rocky Mountain Ragtime Home page
A review of the 2003 Rocky Mountain Ragtime Festival
A RICH MUSICAL EXPERIENCE
by Joanne Clark
(Originally published in the Fall 2003 edition of
Chandelier,
official newsletter of the Terra Verde
Society, reproduced
by permission)
For someone to whom music is fundamental to
life, a music festival seems a natural destination. My
trip to Boulder for the 2003 Rocky Mountain Ragtime
Festival, however, happened in a roundabout way.
Once there, I found an exciting world of living music
that has enriched my life.
I liked ragtime and so signed up to attend the
2002 West Coast Ragtime Festival (WC) in
Sacramento. It was my first ragtime festival and I
didn’t know what to expect. I found that it was not
just classic ragtime from Joplin and others of that era;
the festival introduced me to New Ragtime, Terra
Verde and living composers. I liked the pieces Frank
French and David Thomas Roberts played (they both
performed at WC 2002), so I purchased some of their
CDs, as well as a couple of Scott Kirby CDs (he wasn’t
able to attend the festival that year). I also joined the
fledgling Terra Verde Society because I wanted to
learn about and support this new genre.
After playing the CDs, searching for more
information about Terra Verde, and picking up CDs
from other composers/performers (Brian Keenan,
Glenn Jenks, Hal Isbitz) and finding more CDs from
French, Roberts, and Kirby, I was hooked. I felt a
great appreciation for the music and the
composers—I concluded that I had to attend the
Rocky Mountain Ragtime Festival. After all, it was
billed as the premiere festival to hear Terra Verde,
and I knew I would hear New Ragtime as well as the
classic Scott Joplin and Joseph Lamb pieces (and
there was this tantalizing mention of the art of a
choro). I also was hoping to hear more Nazareth and
Gottschalk. Through the CDs and 2 of Frank French’s
San Francisco Bay Area performances, I learned that
they were important as developmental influences for
Terra Verde.
At Boulder I was disappointed to find that no
Terra Verde set was scheduled. However, I had (and
took) ample opportunity to hear and learn about Terra
Verde’s roots, related musical styles, and to
experience Terra Verde in context. Wow! So sign me
up for the 2004 Rocky Mountain Ragtime Festival…..
The Rocky Mountain festival (RM) had a
different format from that of the West Coast festival.
WC has more performers, has multiple venues, and
each performer has a long block of time to fill. At any
one time, festival attendees have up to five competing
performances from which to choose. The RM, in
contrast, has one venue, and each block of
performance time has a theme and features multiple
performers.
The one venue at RM is large and provides
good opportunities to see the performers. This was a
mixed blessing. I had no trouble finding a parking
place or getting a good seat—but the audience never
approached capacity in the concert space. Having
become a devotee, I would like to see the festival
draw more people, especially ones who would take in
the whole festival rather than just one evening
concert.
Experiencing live performances of these new
pieces I had on CD was thrilling. Getting to see not
only composers I had seen at WC (Frank French and
DTR) but others (notably Scott Kirby and Brian
Keenan) impressed upon me the vitality of ragtime
and Terra Verde. Ragtime is not frozen in time with
Scott Joplin and Joseph Lamb—and elements of a
number of musical styles, including ragtime, have
developed into an important contemporary
pan-American genre—Terra Verde.
I was happy to see talented young performers
(for instance, Elise Crane and Marit Johnson) who had
been through the “Institute” in prior years. One can
only hope that funding will again be available to
continue the Institute.
Highlights of the festival for me were:
· The piano duets;
· Performance of the entire suite “New Orleans
Streets” by David Thomas Roberts (it was a
memorable performance which must have
been exhausting to perform);
· The premieres (I hope to soon hear Frank
French’s new Carnivalesque when the rhythm
section does not overpower the pianos!);
· Hints about ongoing composing and recording
projects.
I felt that the composer/performers were community
who had great respect for one another. It is a
community I appreciate being able to experience in
some measure. A heartfelt “thank you” for sharing
your gift with me.
Return to the Rocky Mountain Ragtime Home page