Scott Joplin

Scott Joplin was a composer and pianist born in Texas in the late 1860s who became the defining figure of American ragtime music. He grew up near the Texas-Arkansas border and eventually made his way to New York City, writing pieces that gave ragtime a formal, almost classical structure. His compositions, including Maple Leaf Rag and The Entertainer, were rediscovered by a wide audience in the early 1970s after decades of neglect.