Peacherine Ragtime Society Orchestra Brings the Music of Scott Joplin to Life

Photo provided by Peacherine Ragtime Society Orchestra

Peacherine Ragtime Society Orchestra

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Hop aboard a musical time machine to hear the syncopated classics of Scott Joplin brought back to life by the Peacherine Ragtime Society Orchestra at the Jim and Joyce Faulkner Performing Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 15.

This performance is part of a yearlong celebration of the 150th birthday of Joplin, the King of Ragtime. Peacherine, “the premier American ragtime ensemble,” celebrates Joplin and his stirring instrumental favorites, all played from the original historic orchestral scores.

Although you may not know the name Scott Joplin, you’ve heard his classic melodies everywhere — from the soundtrack to the 1973 Academy Award-winning film The Sting to the tunes played by your neighborhood ice cream truck. Conductor Andrew Greene and the 11-piece Peacherine Orchestra celebrate Joplin’s hits including “The Maple Leaf Rag,” “The Entertainer” (the theme from The Sting) and much more.

As part of Walton Arts Center’s Colgate Classroom Series, a performance by Peacherine Ragtime Society Orchestra has been offered as an Arkansas history-linked field trip to area schools. Peacherine will perform in partnership with the Faulkner Center for more than 200 Northwest Arkansas students during the day on Nov. 15.

Tickets for the evening performance are $10-20. To purchase tickets, or for more information about other performances and events, visit the Faulkner Center website, call 479-575-5387, or stop by the box office at 453 N. Garland Ave. on the University of Arkansas campus, open 1:30–5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

About Peacherine Ragtime Society Orchestra: The Peacherine Ragtime Society Orchestra, created in 2010 at the University of Maryland by conductor Andrew Greene, underlines the influence of many great composers of the later 1800s and early 1900s. Some include Scott Joplin, Irving Berlin, Victor Herbert and many more. A variety of classical parodies, popular songs, theatre selections, and the most important, rags are only a few genres you can expect to hear in one of their concert programs.

About the Jim and Joyce Faulkner Performing Arts Center: The newest performing arts center at the University of Arkansas — a renovation of the old Field House — is named the Jim and Joyce Faulkner Performing Arts Center, in honor of the couple’s major gift to the project. Completed in September 2017, this world-class performance venue is 39,400 square feet, with seating for 587, and a stage that can accommodate as many as 250 performers. The center is the main performance venue for the university’s J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences Department of Music and hosts guest musical activities for the university and Northwest Arkansas community.

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs.