In 2017 pianist Kylan DeGhetaldi performed a "theme set" devoted to compositions played at the West Coast Ragtime Festival. More recently his compositions have appeared on two of the CDs of contemporary ragtime commissioned and produced by Danny Matson on Rivermont label. Anne and Jeff Barnhart, on flute and piano, recorded his composition “Aura of Indigo” on their CD “Romances in Ragtime.” In 2003 he privately published a folio of earlier compositions Conceptions in Ragtime with foreword by Glenn Jenks. In 2014 "Lucille's Rag Arabesque" won second prize in the composition contest at the Blind Boone Ragtime and Early Jazz Festival. In the 1997 contest "Farewell to Paradise" won honorable mention among 43 entries and was commercially recorded on CD by pianist Brian Keenan.
He has composed approximately 25 rags of significant musical substance beginning in 1960 with "Sedalia," which was issued as a piano roll. In 2000 "Dalliance-A Ragtime Frolic" won the $500 first prize in the Joplin Foundation composition contest. I believe all of these achievements are more than significant to support this nomination many times over. Like his early audio taped interviews, everything Fred has contributed is of great value and authenticity.
#2018 santa cruz ragtime festival archive#
In the late 1950s he created an audio recording about American folk-singer Goebel Reeves, “The Texas Drifter,” steel guitarist Leon McAulliffe and Anglo-American western swing musician “Bob “Wills.” That resource now resides in the Fred Hoeptner Archive of the Southern Folklife Collection of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Schmidt, in Pasadena, California, he assisted in formation of the Rose Leaf Ragtime Club and has served as its treasurer since then. It continues to meet monthly. Though Fred is an Environmental Engineer by profession he has been leaving large contributions in the field of ragtime and popular music and culture since 1955 when, in cooperation with the late P.J. Hoeptner, LaCresenta, California for the 2022 Scott Joplin International Ragtime Foundation's Lifetime Achievement Award. Many videos of Tom’s performances can be found at this YouTube site: he following tribute is from Larry Melton's nomination of Fred Hoeptner for the award: Tom's family is hopeful that he will continue to improve and his friends hope that he may one day return to composition.
He currently resides with his parents in Oakdale, and is receiving ongoing therapy. The accident cost him his ability to write, walk, speak, and play piano. In 2016, Tom was injured in a devastating, rear-end auto collision. To date, Brier has released seven albums: Rising Star (1994), Generic (1997), Pianola (2000), Dualing at the McCoys (with Nan Bostick, 2002)’, Skeletons (2003), Rewind (2006), Blue Sahara (2009), and Constellations (2012). And, since 1982, he has composed and printed complete, notated scores to over 100 original ragtime compositions. He is also know for his collection of original pieces of ragtime sheet music, with a collection numbering over 1,000. While pursuing his ragtime "education," Brier also achieved a college education at the California State University at Turlock, obtaining his Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science in 1993. He has been a headliner many times since, astounding onlookers with his machine-like precision, sensitive interpretations of more lyrical pieces, and nearly flawless sight-reading technique. Tom performed at his first West Coast Ragtime Festival in 1989. The 14-year-old prodigy amazed everyone within earshot with his articulate renderings of the ragtime classics, and with his own highly original piano compositions. Three years later, he began attending gatherings of the Sacramento Ragtime Society. His first "serious" ragtime piece was the "Pine Cone Rag" of 1982, when Brier was 11 years old.
By the age of 11, he had composed and written the scores to some two dozen rags. His parents found him a music teacher when he was five, and very shortly, he was composing and notating his own piano pieces. He alternates these voicings with a variety of other sounds: walking bass ("boogie"), single-note figures, and widely-spaced chords – often both arpeggiated and unarpeggiated tenths.īorn in Oakdale, California in 1971, Tom was exposed to ragtime in his earliest years when his parents purchased a player piano. The hallmark of Brier's piano-playing style is an aggressive left hand that attacks the lower half of the piano keyboard in staccato, machine-gun-like octave passages. The award was presented in absentia at the 2023 Festival in Sedalia on June 3. Tom Brier is the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Scott Joplin International Ragtime Federation.
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