Scott Joplin (c. 1868-1917); USA

Scott Joplin (c. 1868–1917) was born in northeast Texas into a musical African American family and became the preeminent composer of classic ragtime. He learned several instruments as a child and received important early instruction from Julius Weiss, a German-born music teacher who encouraged his study of European art music. As a young man Joplin traveled through the Midwest as a performer before settling for a time in Sedalia, Missouri, where he studied at the George R. Smith College and became closely associated with the developing ragtime style. The publication of a single piano rag in 1899 brought him national fame, though his ambitions extended far beyond popular piano music.

Joplin’s Maple Leaf Rag became the defining success of the ragtime era and established a formal model emulated by countless composers. Other piano works, including The Entertainer, Elite Syncopations, and Solace, combine syncopated rhythmic energy with carefully balanced structures and memorable melody. Joplin aspired to bring ragtime-derived language into larger theatrical forms, culminating in the opera Treemonisha, which received little recognition during his lifetime but was revived to acclaim decades later. His music became central to the reassessment of ragtime as a sophisticated American compositional tradition rather than merely a passing popular style.

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Read biography at allmusic.com.