Acclaimed pianist Scott Kirby

to bring ragtime, jazz, Creole, blues and more to Manchester 

       Highly praised pianist/composer Scott Kirby will perform classic jazz, ragtime, terra verde, the blues and Creole music in a Manchester College concert on Sunday, March 20.

     “In Scott Kirby’s playing, we encounter the very essence of ragtime. He is the embodiment of the Scott Joplin ideal,” wrote Edward A. Berlin, author of The King of Ragtime: Scott Joplin and His Era. Kirby’s performance of his distinctly American arrangements have brought audiences to their feet cheering and critical acclaim ranging from “brilliantly performed” to “charismatic” to “a ragtime composer with few equals.”

     The Manchester College performance begins at 3 p.m. on March 20, in Cordier Auditorium on the north side of campus. Tickets are $7 for adults and $5 for senior citizens and non-MC students. For reservations (which are not required), call 260-982-5551.

     Kirby promises to provide his northeast Indiana audience with a unique performance of examples from North America, South America and the Caribbean, with composers ranging from jazz pioneer “Jelly Roll” Morton and Joplin to Ernesto Lecuona of Cuba.

     His 21 CDs include the four-volume The Complete Scott Joplin, More Damn Good Ragtime, Grace & Beauty, Ravenna and collaborative projects that include Terra Verde, Ragtime Primer and 57 Kinds of Blues.

     Terra verde (green earth) is an emerging genre with roots in European romanticism and in a wide variety of Pan-American styles, Kirby explains. This contemporary cousin of classic ragtime contains hints of Chopin, Gottschalk, Joplin, early jazz and a mélange of Latin-American popular and folk music. For more about terra verde, visit www.GreenEarthMusic.com, the web site of  Idaho-based Viridiana Productions Inc., which distributes Kirby’s works.

     A native of Ohio, Scott Kirby studied piano privately with Robert Howat of Wittenberg University and Sylvia Zaremba of The Ohio State University.  He has performed in ragtime jazz festivals in the United States, Norway, Hungary, France and Belgium and was musical director of the Scott Joplin International Ragtime Festival and the Rocky Mountain Ragtime Festival.

     Kirby also is musical director of the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival in Sedalia, Mo., and the Rocky Mountain Ragtime and American Music Festival in Boulder, Colo. For more about Scott Kirby, visit his official website: http://www.scottkirby.com

     The concert is part of the public program series of Manchester College. For more about the college, visit www.manchester.edu