The weekend of June 4-5 belonged to the virtual concerts and symposia of the Scott Joplin International Ragtime Festival Foundation. That would ordinarily have been the weekend for the event in Sedalia, Missouri but the COVID-19 threat postponed it for another year. Chris Robinson and Bob Walters recruited and edited some fine performance videos for each evening and presentations by Symposia Director Bill Edwards accompanied each concert.
Friday night’s offering was a mini-Women’s Concert featuring Virginia Eskin and Larisa Migachyov. In 2020, a major Women’s Concert had been planned for the COVID-cancelled Festival. Hopefully, it will appear on the 2022 schedule.
The concerts were introduced by Artistic Director Bryan Wright. Virginia Eskin’s sensitive and expressive piano style made for a genuinely pleasurable first set performance. Her work is well known from her First Ladies of Music videos on YouTube. She opened with May Aufderheide’s more familiar piece “Dusty,” and then in her distinctive style played lesser-known female compositions.
The 2020 Chrysanthemum Award for Festival Volunteer of the Year went posthumously to Nevin Almquist, former Board President and exuberant supporter of the event. It was presented during the intermission to Nevin’s family by last year’s recipient, Nancy Moss. An intermission treat was a novelty piece titled, “You’re a Good
