Ragtime music, with its syncopated or ragged rhythms, is considered by many observers to be the first purely American form of popular music.
Drawing on a diversity of styles, ragtime emerged from Black communities in cities like St. Louis toward the end of the 1800s, and one of its most famous composer-performers, Scott Joplin, had plenty of ties to both St. Louis and Sedalia. In Sedalia in 1899, Joplin often played piano in a downtown saloon to help pay his way through college. While doing so, Joplin composed and copyrighted a song, Maple Leaf Rag, that became the model for much ragtime music that came afterward.
Springfield Contemporary Theatre Presents Miller & Tysen s FUGITIVE SONGS
The production, created specifically for streaming, is available online February 11-14. by BWW News Desk
Springfield Contemporary Theatre premieres their MainStage production, the Southwest Missouri debut of Fugitive Songs by Award-winning songwriters Chris Miller and Nathan Tysen, with a live, digital opening night event on Thursday, February 11 at 7pm CT. The production, created specifically for streaming, is available online February 11-14.
Miller & Tysen s Fugitive Songs is a 19-song journey across America. This innovative show, conceived as half-musical/half-hootenanny, spotlights people on the run: a disgruntled Subway sandwich employee, a jilted ex-cheerleader, a pair of Patty Hearst fanatics, a stoner forced to rob a convenience store against his will and so many others. Blending traditional folk music with contemporary pop and gospel, Fugitive Songs offers a new sound for a restless America. This