The New England Ragtime Ensemble (originally

The New England Conservatory The New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) is a Private college, private music school in Boston, Massachusetts. The conservatory is located on Huntington Avenue along Avenue of the Arts (Boston), the Avenue of the Arts near Boston Symphony Ha ...

Ragtime Ensemble) was a

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

chamber orchestra dedicated to the music of

Scott Joplin Scott Joplin (November 24, 1868 – April 1, 1917) was an American composer and pianist. Dubbed the "King of Ragtime", he composed more than 40 ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas. One of his first and most popular pieces, the ...

and other

ragtime Ragtime, also spelled rag-time or rag time, is a musical style that had its peak from the 1890s to 1910s. Its cardinal trait is its Syncopation, syncopated or "ragged" rhythm. Ragtime was popularized during the early 20th century by composers ...

composers.

History

Conservatory president

Gunther Schuller Gunther Alexander Schuller (November 22, 1925June 21, 2015) was an American composer, conductor, horn player, author, historian, educator, publisher, and jazz musician. Biography and works Early years Schuller was born in Queens, New York City ...

created the 12-member student ensemble in 1972 for a festival of romantic American music, at which the group performed some of Schuller's own editions of orchestrated versions of Joplin's piano rags. These period arrangements from the collection "Standard High-Class Rags", commonly known in early accounts as the Red Backed Book (later shortened to The Red Back Book), had been preserved by New Orleans musician Bill Russell and forwarded to Schuller by pianist and music historian

Vera Brodsky Lawrence Vera Brodsky Lawrence (born Vera Rebecca Brodsky; July 1, 1909 – September 18, 1996) was an American pianist, music historian, and editor. A child prodigy, she left her native Virginia to enroll at the Juilliard School of Music in New York Ci ...

. In 1973 the group's performance at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

led to a recording for

Angel Records Angel Records was a record label founded by EMI in 1953. It specialised in European classical music, classical music, but included an occasional operetta or Broadway score. and one Peter Sellers comedy disc. The famous Recording Angel trademark ...

. Orchestrations for later repertoire included

oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double-reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common type of oboe, the soprano oboe pitched in C, ...

bassoon The bassoon is a musical instrument in the woodwind family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuosity ...

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most o ...

and

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

and

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

, a routine period practice. "The Red Back Book" earned a Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance of 1973. It spent 54 weeks on ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

s Top 100 Albums List; 84 weeks on the Top Classical Albums List, including 6 separate appearances at #1; and 12 weeks on the Top Jazz Album List. It was the magazine's Top Classical Album of 1974. The ensemble's second recording, "More Scott Joplin Rags", spent 26 weeks on the Top Classical list, earning a #7 ranking for 5 weeks. Beginning in 1973 the ensemble began a tour of major American and Canadian venues, including sold-out performances at

Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts (originally known as the Wolf Trap Farm Park for the Performing Arts and simply known as Wolf Trap) is a performing arts center located on of national park land in unincorporated Fairfax County, ...

, where they would play seven more times;

Tanglewood Tanglewood is a music venue and Music festival, festival in the towns of Lenox, Massachusetts, Lenox and Stockbridge, Massachusetts, Stockbridge in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. It has been the summer home of the Boston Symphony ...

; the

Blossom Music Center Blossom Music Center, locally referred to simply as Blossom, is an outdoor amphitheatre in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, United States. The venue is the summer home of The Cleveland Orchestra and the site of the ensemble’s annual Blossom Festival. Blo ...

and the

Ravinia Festival Ravinia Festival is a primarily outdoor music venue in Highland Park, Illinois. It hosts a series of outdoor concerts and performances every summer from June to September in a wide variety of musical genres from classical to pop. The first orche ...

; the Newport Music Festival; the

Saratoga Performing Arts Center Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) is a large amphitheatre located in Saratoga Springs, New York, on the grounds of Saratoga Spa State Park. It presents summer performances of classical music, jazz, pop and rock, country, comedy, and dance. I ...

as well as headlining the inaugural Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival in

Sedalia, Missouri Sedalia is a city located approximately south of the Missouri River and, as the county seat of Pettis County, Missouri, Pettis County, Missouri, United States, it is the principal city of the Sedalia Micropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2020 ...

. Following a series of performances in The

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, in September 1974 they performed at a

state dinner A state banquet is an official banquet hosted by the head of state in their official residence for another head of state, or sometimes head of government, and other guests. Usually as part of a state visit or diplomatic conference, it is held ...

at the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

for President and Mrs.

Gerald Ford Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. (born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was the 38th president of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, Ford assumed the p ...

. The group continued to concertize extensively after 1974, becoming independent of the conservatory when Schuller left the school in 1977. He expanded their repertoire, adapting existing arrangements as well as arranging and transcribing the music of James Scott, Joseph Lamb, Louis Chauvin, Arthur Marshall,

James Reese Europe James Reese Europe (February 22, 1880 – May 9, 1919) was an American ragtime and early jazz bandleader, arranger, and composer. He was the leading figure on the African-American music scene of New York City in the 1910s. Eubie Blake called him ...

Jelly Roll Morton Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe ( Lemott, later Morton; c. September 20, 1890 – July 10, 1941), known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American blues and jazz pianist, bandleader, and composer of Louisiana Creole descent. Morton was jazz ...

Zez Confrey Edward Elzear "Zez" Confrey (3 April 1895 – 22 November 1971)
- accessed August 2011 was an American composer and perf ...

, and

Claude Debussy Achille Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influe ...

. Schuller later incorporated contemporary rags by William Albright, Stefan Kozinski, Kenneth Laufer, Rob Carriker, David Reffkin, and one of his own compositions, Sandpoint Rag. Subsequent travel took the ensemble to 38 states and included performances at

Symphony Hall, Boston Symphony Hall is a concert hall that is home to the Boston Symphony Orchestra, located at 301 Massachusetts Avenue in Boston, Massachusetts. BSO founder Henry Lee Higginson commissioned architectural firm McKim, Mead and White to create a ne ...

;

Alice Tully Hall Alice Tully Hall is a concert hall at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. The hall is named for Alice Tully, a New York performer and Philanthropy, philanthropist whose donations assis ...

;

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...

; the

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(as part of the

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...

Inaugural Series); the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; the

Ambassador Auditorium Ambassador Auditorium is located on the historic Ambassador College campus in Pasadena, California, United States. The auditorium's main hall has a capacity of 1,262 people. Some concertgoers call it "The Carnegie Hall of the West". Ambassador Au ...

; Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall; the

New York Public Library for the Performing Arts The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, is located at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, in the Lincoln Center complex on the Upper West Side in Manhattan, New York City. Situated between the Metropolitan O ...

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 ...

; and

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist ministe ...

and

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

. They appeared on

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and WNAC (now WHDH) in Boston;

WETA-TV WETA-TV (channel 26) is the primary PBS member television station in Washington, D.C. Owned by the Greater Washington Educational Telecommunications Association, it is a sister station to NPR member WETA (90.9 FM). The two outlets share stu ...

Washington DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

;

WTIC-TV WTIC-TV (channel 61) is a television station in Hartford, Connecticut, United States, serving the Hartford–New Haven market as an affiliate of the Fox network. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Waterbury-licensed CW affiliate WCCT-TV ( ...

Hartford Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...

;

KENW (TV) KENW (channel 3) is a PBS member television station in Portales, New Mexico, United States. Owned by the Eastern New Mexico University, it is sister to NPR member station KENW-FM (89.5 FM). Both stations share studios at the KENW Broadcast Center ...

, Portales, New Mexico; and performed live on

NBC Today ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'') is an American morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It was the first of its genre on American television ...

(Nov. 1, 1974) and

A Prairie Home Companion ''A Prairie Home Companion'' was a weekly radio variety show created and hosted by Garrison Keillor that aired live from 1974 to 2016. In 2016, musician Chris Thile took over as host, and the successor show was eventually renamed ''Live from He ...

(Jan. 18, 1986). During these years tours took them to

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and the former

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. Their final performance on July 16, 1998, brought them back to the stage on which they had debuted,

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at The New England Conservatory. On November 19, 2018, members of the original ensemble were joined by later players and students for the second annual

Legacy Concert in

- a joint presentation of

New England Conservatory The New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) is a Private college, private music school in Boston, Massachusetts. The conservatory is located on Huntington Avenue along Avenue of the Arts (Boston), the Avenue of the Arts near Boston Symphony Ha ...

and the

Society.

Members

The original ensemble

*Charles Lewis (trumpet) *Victor Sawa (clarinet) *Ray Cutler (trombone) *David Reskin (flute and piccolo) *Gary Ofenloch (tuba) *

Jaki Byard John Arthur "Jaki" Byard (; June 15, 1922 – February 11, 1999) was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer, and arranger. Mainly a pianist, he also played tenor and alto saxophones, among several other instruments. He was known for h ...

* (piano) *Mark Belair (drums) *Juan Ramirez-Hernandez (1st violin) * Tibor Pusztai (2nd violin) *Juan Dandridge (viola) *Bruce Coppock (cello) *Michael Singer (bass) (* at the first performance only; Myron Romanul was the pianist for The Red Back Book and in ensuing concerts)

Other notable players

*Bo Winiker, Dennis Alves, and Thomas Smith (trumpet) *Bruce Creditor, Don Byron, Diane Heffner, and Eric Thomas (clarinet) *Thomas Foulds, Donald Sanders, Robert Couture, and Rick Chamberlain (trombone) *Stephanie Jutt,

Marianne Gedigian Marianne Gedigian is an American flutist and teacher. She holds a Butler Professorship as Professor of Flute at the University of Texas at Austin Butler School of Music. She has formerly held positions as acting principal flute of the Boston Sym ...

, and Julia Scolnik (flute and piccolo) *Rob Carriker, Howard Johnson, Toby Hanks, and Harvey Phillips (tuba) *Christopher O'Riley, John West, Randall Hodgkinson, Stefan Kozinski, Virginia Eskin, and Christopher Oldfather (piano) *Lawrence Fried, Steve Ferrera, and George Schuller (drums) *Amy Teare, Mary O'Reilly, Ann Ourada, Cyrus Stevens, Pattison Story, Susan Carrai, and David Reffkin (violin) *Virginia Izzo and Leonard Matczynski (viola) *Freya Oberle Samuels, Phoebe Carrai, and Shannon Snapp (cello) *Edwin Barker, Richard Sarpola, and Ed Schuller (bass) *Lynn Jacquin, Barbara Knapp, Sandra Apeseche, and Claudia Wann (oboe) *Judith Bedford, Marlene Mazzuca, and Richard Sharp (bassoon) *George Sullivan, Larry Ragent, Pamela Paikin, William Caballero, and Thomas Haunton (French horn) *Paul Meyers, Marcus Fiorello, and Bob Young (guitar and banjo)

Discography

As The New England Conservatory Ragtime Ensemble

*Scott Joplin: The Red Back Book (1973) Angel Records S-36060 *More Scott Joplin Rags (1974) Golden Crest CRS-31031 *The Road from Rags to Jazz (1975) Golden Crest CRS-31042

Reissues of The Red Back Book

*1979 Angel SS-45029 (45 rpm LP minus piano solos) *1985

EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...

/Angel CDC-7 47193 2 (CD including previous 45 rpm material as well as the reissue of the Southland Stingers' "Elite Syncopations")

As The New England Ragtime Ensemble

*The Art of the Rag (1989) GM Recordings GM3018CD *The Art of Scott Joplin GM3030CD (reissue of More Scott Joplin Rags)

Bibliography

*Jasen, David A. and Tichenor, Trebor Jay (1978) ''Rags and Ragtime: a Musical History''. The Seabury Press; Dover Publications, Inc. . *Berlin, Edward A. (1980) ''Ragtime: a Musical and Cultural History''. University of California Press. . *Hasse, John Edward, ed. (1985) ''Ragtime: its History, Composers and Music''. Schirmer Books. Library of Congress Cat. # 84-13952. . *Berlin, Edward A. (1994). ''King of Ragtime: Scott Joplin and His Era''. Oxford University Press. . *Jason, David A. (2007) ''Ragtime: an Encyclopedia, Discography, and Sheetography''. Routledge Taylor and Francis Group. . *Waldo, Terry (2009) ''This is Ragtime''. Jazz at Lincoln Center Library. .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:New England Ragtime Ensemble, The Chamber orchestras New England Conservatory Musical groups established in 1972 Musical groups disestablished in 1998 Ragtime Scott Joplin Grammy Award winners Disbanded American orchestras 1972 establishments in Massachusetts 1998 disestablishments in Massachusetts Orchestras in Boston Gunther Schuller