SACRAMENTO RAGTIME SOCIETY NEWSLETTER By Virginia Tichenor y all accounts, the 23rd annual West BCoast Ragtime Festival, held at the Red Lion Hotel Sacramento the weekend of Nov. 20–22nd was a fantastic weekend of music! The festival had quite an inter- national flavor this year with Morten Gun- nar Larsen of Oslo, Norway, Neville Dickie, of London, England and John Gill, of Perth, Australia all featured this year. Festival highlights included the John Stark Ragtime Sampler program on Friday afternoon, showcasing a sample of the var- ied rags published by John Stark with his- torical commentary provided by Trebor Tichenor. Friday night featured the annu- al “festival sampler” program and later that See Continued on page 2 In This Issue by Chris Bradshaw know you have all noticed the “bursting- and inspire each other, these young play- Iwith-enthusiasm” youth performers who ers, who live thousands of miles from each are making a more pronounced presence at other, took full advantage of the opportun- each succeeding ragtime festival. From the ities presented to them. Sergey Smirnov newest first—place winners of the recent summed it up when he said that this was West Coast Ragtime Society Youth Compet- the first time in his life that he could play a ition to the pack of young lions who roam piano as loud as he wanted at two o’clock the festival halls in a clump together, rag- in the morning. I’m told by Will Perkins time is enjoying a resurgence of interest that some in the group were up even much with this newest generation of players. later. That’s youth for you. Their lively steps and livelier fingers are in- Having the ears and interest of the terjecting a new spring and bounce that seasoned, professional, festival players, the the festival has come to count on in recent kids rubbed elbows with the best the festiv- years. al had to offer. The sound friendships (pun The Martinique sizzled far into the intended) made at the festival are forming night as the roving youth performers kept the collaborative base and structure that the music going long after older and the future of ragtime depends upon. And maybe wiser heads were nestled onto pil- best of all, we were all privileged to witness lows. The luxury of having a safe space to first—hand the joyful, lively, celebratory, meet with fabulous pianos at their dispos- youthful presence these kids spilled out to al, and time over several days to challenge See continued on page 4 SACRAMENTO RAGTIME SOCIETY Continued from page 1 Eggers, also received an award recognizing evening, silent movies accompanied by fest- her many years of service to West Coast ival favorite, Frederick Hodges. Saturday Ragtime Society. was a very full day that started with the The festival also featured six seminars ertainly one of the highlights of this Youth Master Class, led by Frederick over in the Camellia Room this year, and Cyear's West Coast Ragtime Festival Hodges. Saturday afternoon’s special show by all accounts, they were all very well-re- was Saturday night's production of the was a concert on ragtime all from 1909 - a ceived at the festival. The ragtime store, Ziegfeld Follies Revue. Produced by Fre- centennial celebration! Saturday evening’s dance instruction, and after hours kept fest- drick Hodges and Ann Gibson, this show events included a stride summit show and ival attendees busy, too! went "all out" with lavish costumes, and a a late show on the Ziegfeld Follies. list of great songs. Sunday’s program started with a special set The festival received publicity this year Some of the songs featured included, on song slides, led by Frederick Hodges from the Sacramento Bee, with an article A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody, Lovie Joe, The and Sean Sharp. Nan Bostick also held about ragtime that ran on Saturday, Novem- st Ziegfeld Follies Rag, Hello Frisco, Hello, It All forth on Sunday morning with a special set ber 21 of the festival weekend. Belongs To Me and more, songs made fam- featuring “Women in Ragtime” and De- Many SRS members were featured at ous by the likes of Fanny Brice, Eddie Can- troit’s Taslimah Bey, new to the festival the festival this year including: Elliott tor, Nora Bayes, Harry Richman, John audiences this year. The annual Youth Adams, Cleve Baker, Chris & Jack Brad- Steele and so many more. Concert also took place on Sunday, and shaw, Nan Bostick, Tom Brier, Marty later that afternoon, the festival concluded Eggers, Merv Graham, The Porcupine The follies ran in New York City from with the traditional “festival finale” con- Ragtime Ensemble, The Raspberry Jam 1909 to 1927 cert, emceed by SRS member Merv Gra- Band, Sullivans & Drivons, and Virginia The show starred Ann Gibson, Helen ham. At the finale, West Coast Board Tichenor. Burns, Frederich Hodges, Sean Sharp and Member Chris Bradshaw, received an This edition of the SRS newsletter fea- a host of beautiful show girls. award acknowledging her 5 years of hard tures photos of the festival. Mark your cal- work coordinating the annual West Coast endars for next year’s West Coast Ragtime Ragtime Society’s youth piano competi- Festival, to be held Nov. 19–21, 2010 at the tion. Mail secretary and SRS member, Bev Red Lion Hotel Sacramento! SACRAMENTO RAGTIME SOCIETY by Chris Bradshaw Augustine performed Martha Mier’s the person has passed on. It doesn’t matter hat do you get when you mix five Tuxedo Jazz. With Augustine, Frederick was what story you bring to the music; it’s just W first place winners from the West impressed by his good use of pedaling that a tool to shape your playing. Adding em- Coast Ragtime Youth Competition with created the whole mood for this piece, phasis by some slight pauses on special one Frederick Hodges, Master Teacher, par adding that so many other players just chords, playing a certain phrase a little excellence? The answer is an educational pump the pedal to keep time. With this faster, adjusting dynamics to the mood all and entertaining hour—plus of Ragtime piece that was jazzy in nature, a freer use of add dramatic tension. thrills and skills. Frederick’s encouraging the sustain pedal was appropriate to set the In his discussion on dynamics another and supportive style of teaching brought mood. With ragtime, you want your music point Frederick made that took many in out the best in each of these junior per- to be crystal clear. Frederick also discussed the audience by surprise is that the bigger formers. And the bonus is that all the rag- how one needs to match his/her playing to the piano, the softer you can play because time players in the audience benefited the instrument and to the room. A good longer strings vibrate with less effort. from his ragtime playing tips. Start to fin- player adjusts his performance to these Not all notes are created equal and in ish, it was a win-win presentation. factors and that was what Augustine was his concluding remarks to Jamison, Freder- The morning began with Ashley Kim doing. ick discussed the playing octaves. Some- from Rescue, who was the winner in Divi- Next to perform was Namkha Nguy- times you want to bring out one voice over sion 1 of the competition. Division 1 is for en, age 13 from Folsom who was also a the other. The three choices are 1) to play children 8-10 years in age. Her teacher is first place winner in the 2A Division. His both notes the same, 2) Let the upper note Mirim Kim of El Dorado Hills. Ashley, teacher is Jeanette Monroe, also from Fol- sing out louder or 3) Make the lower note who is eight, performed Martha Mier’s Mis- som. Namkha performed Martha Mier’s dominate. The player has these choices. souri Rag in a jaunty, upbeat style. Freder- Steamboat Rag. Contrasts were the theme of Last on the program was Division 3 ick’s comments centered around adding Frederick’s remarks to Namkha. Frederick, winner, Linda Zhang, age 15 from accents and contrast to the piece. His sug- who had talked earlier about the import- Alameda. Her teacher is Kent Tchii, who is gestion of starting whisper-soft and making ance of using contrasting dynamics, this mentioned above. Division 3 is for stu- a crescendo in the intro, brought the piece time added that contrast can also be ob- dents ages 15-18. Performing the very up to a whole new level. tained by playing the right hand in a con- beautiful Peacherine Rag by Scott Joplin, Frederick took a close look at phrasing nected legato fashion and using staccato Linda’s strong classical training showed in and said to think of phrases as calls and re- for the notes in the left hand, or vice versa, her excellent technique and phrasing. Hav- sponses, explaining that phrasing is much depending on the musical situation. It’s ing played mostly classical music, Frederick like two people talking—one voice says hard to do at first, but once you learn this opened Linda’s eyes to the possibilities of something and another voice answers. By separation of hands, it’s yours forever to judiciously adding ornamentation and using dynamics, to separate the voices, the keep in your handy toolbox of playing octaves that don’t appear on the printed call and response becomes very clear and it skills. page. The repeated sections cry out for also adds dramatic interest.