Classicopia is thrilled to present its first performance in Santa Barbara, California! Classicopia West is made possible through the great friendship and hard work of David and Fay Bisno, who have presented so many concerts for us in the Hanover area. They have a winter place in Santa Barbara and have helped us inaugurate what we hope could be a yearly jaunt to the West Coast to showcase some of our wonderfully intimate Classicopia concerts. This first performance will be a solo piano program entitled “RAGTIME ROMP.” Pianist and Artistic Director Daniel Weiser will perform many of the great Rags of Scott Joplin as well as James Scott, Joseph Lamb, Zez Confrey, and even George Gershwin. Professor Weiser will also talk about the fascinating social history of Ragtime, which was born in the African-American brothels along the Mississippi and would become the first great American music, rising meteorically in the first decades of the 20th century to the North and Midwest and even across the ocean to Europe–only to disappear almost as quickly with the advent of Jazz. A revival in the 1960s and 1970s brought this music back to properly fit back into our American musical history, but its negative reception among musical elites also highlighted the deep racism of the country and the fear and contempt that African-American music has always instilled in white America. We hope you can join us for this truly fun and fascinating afternoon!