The fullness of Joplin’s artistry shines through in Downes’ open-hearted interpretations, heard in arrangements that transcend historical boundaries. He was both of those things, and more - an innovator who merged traditions and histories to make music at the crossroads of the American future. He’s acknowledged as a classically-trained composer of concert music whose ambitions were denied in his own time. Joplin is revered as The “King of Ragtime'. Chart-topping American pianist Lara Downes reflects on the music of Scott Joplin through a 21st-century lens, revealing its many layers of genre-blurring subtlety and nuance.
