Scott Joplin

Scott Joplin was an American composer and pianist born in 1868 in Texas. He became the leading figure of ragtime music, a syncopated piano style that bridged African-American musical traditions and popular song forms. His most famous works include the Maple Leaf Rag and The Entertainer, which helped define the genre and brought ragtime to mainstream audiences in the early 1900s. Joplin also composed two operas, including Treemonisha, and numerous piano rags and marches. He studied briefly at the George R. Smith College for Negroes in Sedalia, Missouri, where he later settled and published much of his work. Despite limited recognition during his lifetime, Joplin’s compositions were rediscovered in the 1970s and remain cornerstones of American music history.