Joshua Rifkin, whose recordings of Scott Joplin’s compositions on the Nonesuch label are considered paragons, is reputed to have helped spark the Ragtime Revival of the 1970s. Yet he had never appeared in Joplin’s stomping grounds in Sedalia, Missouri. That changed on Friday May 30, 2025, when Rifkin performed a number of Joplin’s pieces, beginning with the most famous, bantering, “How can I be here and not play the ‘Maple Leaf Rag?’” at a packed Liberty Theater in downtown Sedalia. The “intimate lecture-recital” was part of the 51st annual Scott Joplin International Ragtime Festival.
Between measured, crystalline performances on a grand piano Rifkin reflected on Joplin’s artistry, particularly to Joplin’s groundbreaking use of European classical music conventions through a uniquely African American perspective. By calling “The Crysanthemum” an “Afro American Inter Mezzo,” Rifkin called to example, “Joplin is saying but I can lay claim to this tradition as well as to that to which I came, through birth, and at the same time he’s saying, but I can change this tradition, I can bring this new element into it and thus go beyond limitations with which Joplin would have to live all of his life.”
Similarly, by calling “Bethena” A Concert Waltz, Joplin was expanding what the public should associate with a Black composer, beyond music for dancing,
