Tent will provide intimate setting for ragtime performers

By Brenda S. Edwards
Staff Writer

Sounds of ragtime music will come from underneath a large tent near Norton Center on Centre College campus during the Great American Band Brass Festival this year.

Featured artists will be the ever-popular Scott Kirby of New Orleans, La., who has been pushing his boogie-woogie, blues and ragtime piano music at the Brass Band Festival since it began.

There also will be Richard Zimmerman, performer/ragtime specialist of Grass Valley, Calif; David Reffkin, of San Francisco, Calif.; and others who are scheduled to participate in the ``Conference on American Band History: The Ragtime Era'' on Friday.

With many of the country's top brass bands crowding the schedule during the weekend, planners decided to have a special place for the ragtime performers. By adding the tent, performances will be going on in the two areas on the Centre College Campus.

Smaller groups, pianists and theater orchestras will perform under the tent while brass bands are entertaining on the Main Stage.

``We thought it would be nice to have an intimate setting where the ragtime groups can play,'' said George Foreman, festival organizer.

Kirby said he's getting too old to drag his piano around so one will be made a available for him this year.

Bill Gay and Phillipa Burgess of Harrodsburg are constructing the 30- by 40-foot canvas tent. The canopy section is currently being used at Shakertown for programs for school children.

It took Burgess about two days to make the tent canopy. It will take another day to finish the walls, she said. The staves are hand-forged.

The tent will seat about 100 people and has a large stage area. It is designed in a style similar to those of the turn of the century. ... like those where Chautauqua performances were given, Foreman said.

Burgess did not have an actual pattern for the tent, her first venture at tent-making. ``I made it up as I went along,'' she said. She got some ideas from tents used in re-enactments.

The tent will also be used during other festivals and events, Burgess said.