I first met Hal Isbitz in 1991 at the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival in Sedalia, Missouri, and again in Santa Barbara, California in 1992, while playing a piano concert there. In my opinion, Hal is one of the most important composers of the post-1960 ragtime era. He recently turned 90 and retired from programming and composing. I regard him as an elder statesman.
Hal won second place in the 1997 Scott Joplin Ragtime Composition Contest for “Lazy Susan”; he won the Ragtime for Tulsa Foundation Competition in 2007; a CD consisting of his piano tangos was released in 1998 (played by the late John Arpin on Marquis Classics); and this author was the first pianist to record his rags on a commercially released CD (The Graceful Ghost, Capstone Records, 2007). Sadly, his work has, nonetheless, been considerably neglected.
Personally, I believe Hal to be erudite, witty, somewhat reserved, yet devoid of any of the egotism that one all too often encounters in the performance world. Hal’s musical style is untheatrical yet dramatic; quiet—yet intensely disciplined.
His parents were born in Poland and were, apparently, quite musical.
Hal Isbitz: My father loved classical music, and listened to it constantly on [the] radio. My mother had a nice singing voice. Both were musically illiterate. I was born in S
