This weekend Mississippi State students and Starkville residents will have the unique opportunity to get exposed to a unique and important genre in American music history, the 2nd annual Charles Templeton Ragtime Music Festival. Attendees will experience live music and festivities all weekend in honor of ragtime, a highly influential but nearly forgotten genre of early American music.”It’s the first pop music,” said Canadian pianist Mimi Blais, who will be one of eight performers featured at the festival. “Ragtime music has all the elements. That’s what makes it so important and so interesting.”
In addition to Blais, the weekend’s festival will include Marty Eggers, Frederick Hodges, Brian Holland, David Jasen, David Reffkin, Bob Seeley and Virginia Tichenor. Mitchell Memorial Library special events coordinator and festival co-chair Lyle Tate said the list of performers is an impressive arsenal of world renowned ragtime musicians.
“These are some of the best of the best in the ragtime world,” Tate said. “We’re really excited to have artists of this magnitude here for our festival.”
Despite the apparently single-genre heading “Ragtime Festival,” the music will feature a diverse array of the many flavors of this genre.
“Ragtime music has many different styles,” Blais said. “You have classic rag, folk rag, pop rag and jazz rag. We’re all different types of musicians.”
Blais said she considers Fredrick Hodges a great novelty pianist.
“He plays for silent films all around the planet. Bob Seeley is a boogie-woogie master. Virginia Tichenor is a top name in folk rag,” he said. “I’m more in classical and other various styles.”
The festival began last year as a means of highlighting Mitchell Memorial Library’s Charles Templeton Music Museum, which strongly features ragtime. The museum is a result of Starkville businessman Charles Templeton’s lifetime love of music.
“We wanted to recognize the uniqueness of the collection by having this festival and bringing these world class performers to Mississippi State,” library administrator of systems and festival co-chair Stephen Cunetto said.
Ragtime music experienced the height of its popularity early in the 20th century. Lyle Tate describes the genre as “feel good and happy” from the “same family [as jazz].” Ragtime music itself experienced revivals in the ’30s and the ’70s, and, according to Mimi Blais, its influence on modern music is undeniable.
“It’s the music that opened the door to any style of nonclassical music in America,” she said. “Name it, it’s connected to ragtime. Ragtime and blues mixed together, and there you are. You have the entire history of American music. It’s a chain, but this is where it starts. It’s nice to hear that the music played a hundred years ago was very close to what is played to day. It’s all connected. It’s an evolution.”
Though the weekend’s festivities will be a celebration of a 100-year-old genre, the festival’s staff wants students to know that the experience will be anything but a boring history lesson.
“They will experience fantastic entertainment from some extremely talented performers,” Cunetto said. “People probably think ragtime isn’t something to get them excited, but when they hear the music they will be excited.”
Blais said she finds that people are hesitant to try out ragtime music, but they are never disappointed when they do.
“When people hear my concerts they are like, ‘Wow! We didn’t know that ragtime could be so incredible,'” she said. The festival has stirred up a lot of interest nationwide from music enthusiasts and the ragtime community.
“We have quite a few people preregistered, most of whom live all over the country,” Tate said.
According to Blais, ragtime performers are especially excited about the festival because it’s being held at a sophisticated university setting.
“I think ragtime music should be presented this way,” she said. “I wish there were more places like this that would give respect to ragtime music.”
The events of the festival will take place March 28-30 in the Mitchell Memorial Library in the Grisham Room and The Charles Templeton Music Museum. The major concerts of the festival will take place in Lee Hall Auditorium. Student admission to the event is free. Non-student admission ranges from $10 for a single evening concert to $75 for an all weekend pass. Single day passes are also available. For more information visit http://library.msstate.edu/templeton/festival.
“It’s really wild. It’s entertaining. It’s funny,” Tate said. “It should be amazing to watch these people do what they do.