Artists

Adam Swanson

Seventeen year-old Adam Swanson is three-time junior champion of the World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest, held in Peoria, Illinois, and in 2008 won the adult division of that contest. Originally from Michigan, but now living in Shenandoah, Iowa, he discovered ragtime on his grandparents' "Web-TV," and has been playing the piano since he was ten years old.

Adam is rapidly becoming known as one of the world's foremost performers of American piano ragtime. He has been a featured performer at dozens of ragtime and jazz festivals across the United States and abroad. In 2007 he appeared at the Bohem Ragtime and Jazz Festival in the Republic of Hungary. Adam's latest CD On a Circular Staircase is available from Rivermont records and his other CDs are available on the Rag-Time label. You can also listen to Adam play on youtube.

Adam is also an avid railfan and collects antique sheet music and records.

"Perfessor" Bill Edwards

Bill Edwards has been immersed in the worlds of ragtime, honky-tonk and jazz since he was six years old listening to recordings of the Firehouse Five plus Two, Frankie Carle and Paule Lingle. By ten Bill was equally at home belting out Beethoven, Beatles, Elton John or Scott Joplin tunes on his piano.

Bill began his career in Durango Colorado as a piano repair technician, but soon became a local attraction playing the piano rather than fixing it.

Bill won the Old Time Piano Playing World Championship in 1991 and since then has been a continual influence in various ragtime contests as a guest, contestant or judge.

Bill is also a ragtime composer having written such titles as The Necromancer, The Wiener Schnitzel Rag, and The Hanon Rag.

Bill's music is available on his web site Perfessor Bill Edwards and you can hear more of his work on youtube.

Bryan Wright

Bryan Wright hails from Lynchburg, Virginia. Bryan began is love of music at 18-months with the gift of his first record player. His musical training began on classical piano at the age of five, but he soon found an interest in the rags of Scott Joplin. Brian also studyed the violin and later the viola and performed with the Judith Creek String Quartet and the Heartstrings Quartet. Bryan is currently pursuing a doctorate in historical musicology at the University of Pittsburgh.

Brian is the founder of an on-line 24-hour ragtime music station Elite Syncopations Radio and also hosts Soundstage, heard world-wide on the internet at www.bostonpete.com

Bryan released his first CD Syncopated Musings in 2004 on the Rivermont label. You can also listen to some of Bryan's performances on youtube.

Martin Spitznagel

At 25, Martin Spitznagel is already a well known personality in the ragtime world. Martin began his training and competitive playing early winning a Yamaha Disklavier piano at the age of 14 in Calliope Media's nationwide "Crazy for Ragtime" competition. Since then, he has been an active performer and composer of ragtime.

Martin was a featured youth performer at the Scott Joplin International Ragtime Festival in 1999 and has made return appearances at that festival in 2006, 2007 and 2008. In 2007, while competing at the World Old Time Piano Playing Championship, he won the "Best New Rag" competition with his "Red Elephant Rag."

Also in 2007, Martin released his first album, Tricky Fingers on the Rivermont Records label. You can hear more of Martin's music on youtube

A resident of Alexandria VA, Martin works as a film-maker and writer when he is not playing ragtime.