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September 21-24 2023
About Us
Since 2009, the twin boroughs of Rockhill Furnace and Orbisonia, Pennsylvania have been filled with the strains of America's first popular music: Ragtime, brought to life by some of America's leading ragtime piano players.
Enjoy America's Original Music in one of its most historic towns!
Join us September 21-24 2023 for the 14th Annual Central Pennsylvania Ragtime & American Music Festival. Four fun-filled days of music, silent movies, lectures, open houses, and more. Hear Ragtime favorites, Jazz, Boogie-Woogie, Stride, Blues, and hits from the Great American Songbook, all performed by Grammy Award winning musicians. Plus, enjoy rides on the town's two signature attractions, the historic East Broad Top Railroad, and the neighboring Rockhill Trolley Museum!
Our festival is by far the most intimate of the ragtime gatherings - where else in America can you enjoy our nation's musical heritage in such a historic setting? Past performers include Adam Swanson, Frederick Hodges, Martin Spitznagel, Bryan & Yuko Wright, Brian Holland, Danny Coots, Domingo Mancuello, Joey Antico, Bill Edwards, Andrew Greene and the Peacherine Ragtime Orchestra, Ed Clute, Daniel Souvigny, Richard Dowling, and Joyce Richardson. Come join us for some great music!
The festival is currently managed by Andrew Greene, founder and director of the Peacherine Ragtime Orchestra (www.peacherineragtime.com).
2023 Performer Lineup
Frederick Hodges
Hailed in the press as one of the top concert pianists in the world, Frederick Hodges has established a reputation specializing in late romantic music as well as Ragtime, Broadway, and Hollywood musicals of the first half of the twentieth century by America’s best composers, such as George Gershwin and Cole Porter. He maintains a busy concert schedule of stage, television, radio, and film appearances around the globe. He regularly performs as guest soloist with the California Pops Orchestra and the Pasadena Pops Orchestra, under the baton of Michael Feinstein. Additionally, he is a much sought-after silent film accompanist for both live performances and DVD. He performs regularly at the Hollywood Heritage Museum, the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum in California, the Cinecon Film Festival in Hollywood, The TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood, The San Francisco Silent Film Festival, and at silent film festivals around the country. He also performs at music festivals around the country, such as the Sacramento Music Festival, the West Coast Ragtime Festival, and the Sedalia Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival. His website is: www.frederickhodges.com.
T.J. Muller
Multi-instrumentalist T.J. Muller is a bountiful resource of knowledge when it comes to Jazz, Blues Swing and Ragtime music of the early 20th Century. Based in St. Louis, he grew up in the south of England where he heard his father playing the music of the 1920s. He moved to St. Louis in 2013 to play with Pokey LaFarge, and has since formed his own group, The Arcadia Dance Orchestra. He has performed internationally on cornet, banjo, and other instruments. He has previously performed at the Scott Joplin International Ragtime Festival, the West Coast Ragtime Festival, and at other venues across the United States.
Adam Swanson
Adam Swanson is one of the world’s foremost performers of vintage American popular music, including ragtime, early jazz, the Great American Songbook, and more. He holds a bachelor’s in classical piano and a master’s in musicology from the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University. Adam has been a featured performer and lecturer at ragtime and jazz festivals across the United States and abroad, and he is the only four-time winner of the World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest. He made his New York debut in Carnegie Hall at the age of nineteen, where he performed with Michael Feinstein. Adam has performed at the Cinecon Classic Film Festival in Hollywood and the Kennedy Center, as well as in Hungary, Switzerland, and Australia. He has worked with such musicians as Toronto’s John Arpin, former rock star Ian Whitcomb, and legendary 1950s recording artist Johnny Maddox, who was one of Adam’s greatest influences. Adam frequently performs at the Historic Strater Hotel where he makes his home in Durango, Colorado. Visit Adam online: www.adamgswanson.com.
Virginia Tichenor
Virginia Tichenor has been consumed by ragtime her entire life, as the daughter of Trebor Tichenor, the noted ragtime scholar, pianist, collector and founder of the St. Louis Ragtimers. She studied music at the St. Louis Community Association for the Arts, and took advanced training from concert pianist John Phillips. Always at the crossroads of the ragtime revival, her parental home houses the world's largest library of ragtime sheet music and piano rolls. Virginia grew up with legends like Eubie Blake, Max Morath and Butch Thompson chatting in her own living room. Her father is advisor-confidant for most of the ragtime community, so Virginia often heard new rags when they were forming in the minds of their composers. The topic of her college research project? The ragtime revival, of course!
Virginia is very highly regarded as a performer, and is one of the few women playing ragtime professionally in the country. Her repertoire features mostly folk and classic ragtime which she performs in an energetic style. Her recent performances include the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival in Sedalia, Missouri; the St. Louis Ragtime and Traditional Jazz Festival in St. Louis, Missouri, the James Scott International Ragtime Festival in Carthage, Missouri, and the West Coast Ragtime Festival in Sacramento, California.
Marty Eggers
Well known on the West Coast as a veritable “encylclopedia of ragtime and early jazz repetoire,” Marty Eggers has played with numerous San Francisco Bay Area jazz and ragtime groups. He is a skilled composer and arranger of ragtime and traditional jazz and appears often with his wife, Virginia Tichenor. Marty is well known on the West Coast as a top-notch ragtime pianist and bassist. Marty's music career began in Sacramento where as a teenager he helped found the Sacramento Ragtime Society in 1982. He has played with numerous San Francisco Bay Area jazz and ragtime groups, most notably John Gill's San Francisco JazzBand and the Black Diamond Jazz Band. His talent and versatility have led him into several varied and prestigious engagements, from recording with traditional jazz legend Bob Helm to touring Germany with Hal Smith's Rhythm Cats to playing in backup bands for both Leon Redbone and Butch Thompson.
The Crown Syncopators
The Crown Syncopators ragtime trio, formed in 2007, consists of Virginia Tichenor on drums, Marty Eggers on tuba, and Frederick Hodges on piano. The trio plays regularly to enthusiastic crowds of music lovers at legendary waterfront restaurant Pier 23 in San Francisco and is expanding its territory to include ragtime and jazz festivals around the country. The trio derives its name from the brand name of the piano at Pier 23. Their performance at the Central Pennsylvania Ragtime & American Music Festival marks the first time that this fine ensemble has performed east of the Mississippi River!
Bryan Wright
Bryan S. Wright is a pianist and Grammy-nominated musicologist specializing in ragtime and early jazz piano styles. With his wife, Yuko, he has performed and lectured on ragtime across the United States and abroad, including featured appearances at the Scott Joplin International Ragtime Festival, the West Coast Ragtime Festival, the JVC Jazz Festival, the Buenos Aires Ragtime Festival, and the Tokyo Ragtime Festival. He has also released two full-length solo CDs, Syncopated Musings and Breakin’ Notes. He is founder and executive producer of Rivermont Records, an internationally-distributed label specializing in ragtime and early jazz. Bryan is also an avid collector of 78rpm records, and he hosts the acclaimed weekly podcast “The Shellac Stack.” Bryan holds degrees in historical musicology from the College of William and Mary and the University of Pittsburgh.
Andrew Greene, Festival Director
Andrew Greene is a leading authority on orchestral ragtime and silent film accompaniment in the United States. He is the Founder, Conductor, and Director of the Peacherine Ragtime Society Orchestra, "the premier American Ragtime ensemble" as hailed by the Washington Post, dedicated to preserving and performing America's original popular music: Ragtime. He has appeared such prestigious venues as the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian Institution, The American Film Institute, and the Library of Congress, and frequently lectures and performs with his orchestra and in solo piano concerts across the United States. Most recently, he has appeared at the West Coast Ragtime Festival, The Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival, and at other events. Mr. Greene appeared as guest conductor for the South Dakota Symphony Chamber Orchestra in Sioux Falls, South Dakota in September of 2013, and the Fremont Symphony Orchestra in March of 2017.
The Peacherine Ragtime Society Orchestra
The Peacherine Ragtime Society Orchestra (PRSO) is the leading professional ragtime orchestra in the United States. Under the direction of virtuoso Andrew Greene, PRSO recreates the syncopated stylings of a bygone era - Ragtime, Theater, and Dance music, along with underscoring classic silent films using an immense archive of over 15,000 original orchestral scores.
A crowd favorite while performing at venues from The Kennedy Center, The Library of Congress, The American Film Institute, historic theaters, major performing arts centers, universities and more across the United States... PRSO is also a favorite on radio stations everywhere!
Their programs highlight the music of the late 1800s and early 1900s, with selections by composers such as Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, W.C. Handy, Eubie Blake, George M. Cohan, and of course, the King of Ragtime, Scott Joplin. Their silent film programs feature the biggest names of the day (Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd Laurel & Hardy, Douglas Fairbanks, and more), and have earned them worldwide recognition and fame.
Peacherine records for Rivermont Records (www.rivermontrecords.com), whose recordings on CD and vinyl have been praised as "first class", "wonderful, toe tapping fun", and "the most satisfying ragtime orchestra collections available."
