Scott Kirby
Scott Kirby once again will be rolling his piano
through this year's festival. The New Orleans street player is a serious student
of boogie-woogie, blues and ragtime.
He has been called "today's best player of Scott Joplin's music," but is also recognized for his compositions.
He was musical director of both the Scott Joplin International Ragtime Festival
from 2001-2002 and the Rocky Mounth Ragtime Festival from 1998-2003. He has
composed more than 125 pieces and has recorded 23 CDs covering a range of
styles, from blues and ragtime to his own eclectic original compositions.
A native of Ohio, Kirby began his study of music at the age of 6, and continued formal piano instruction for 17 years. He worked under Robert
Howat of Wittenburg University of Ohio, and Sylvia Zaremba at the Ohio State University, Kirby moved to New Orleans and began his professional music
career. In the following four years, he recorded the complete rags of Scott Joplin, and made his debut at all of the major ragtime festivals in the
United States, as well as festivals in Belgium, France, Norway and Hungary.
Subsequent recording projects covered a wide spectrum of American traditional music, including classic ragtime, Eastern ragtime, stride,
blues, tango and terra verde, a contemporary cousin of ragtime consisting of a lot of Pan-American
material.
In his compositions, he is a proponent of terra verde. He is dedicated to building on the legacies of Scott Joplin, Louis Moreau Gottschalk and others
by fusing elements of traditional American music into a contemporary, romantic, syncopated piano style.
Kirby now divides his time between performance and composition, and is available for concert appearances, workshops, residencies and festivals.