The Rhythmia

Over a hundred years ago, ragtime was America's original popular music. While considered primarily as piano solo music today, ragtime was often played during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by string bands consisting of violins, guitars, banjos and mandolins. The Rhythmia is keeping this ragtime string band tradition alive. They also explore the Creole music of the Caribbean and Louisiana from the same time period, because of the many similarities to ragtime.

The Rhythmia's concerts include brief historical information on the tunes and biographical information on the composers. A performance by The Rhythmia is both entertaining and educational.

The individual members of The Rhythmia have over 35 years experience performing at many ragtime and folk music festivals across the country including the Scott Joplin Festival in Sedalia, Missouri, the ragtime festival on the Goldenrod Showboat in St. Louis, Missouri, and the Festival of American Folklife in Washington, D.C., by invitation of the Smithsonian. These three musicians got together to form The Rhythmia in 2009 and have performed at places such as Old Shawnee Days in Shawnee, Kansas, the Kansas City Missouri Public Library, and the Kansas City Riverfest in Kansas City, Missouri. Please click on the Schedule link to see their upcoming performances.

Kevin Sanders — Guitar
Kevin's interest in music research has led to published articles in the Rag - Times and the Kansas City Rag - Time Revelry. He has given symposiums on ragtime music and was interviewed for Uniquely Kansas City, a television documentary on the history of the arts in Kansas City, produced by the local PBS station KCPT-TV. Kevin was also featured in a National Public Radio special report on the famous Kansas City dancer 'Doc' Brown, as well as two PBS-TV specials, The Cradle of Ragtime, and In Ragged-Time, a concert at Mississippi State University. In addition to performing, Kevin has written several songs and instrumental pieces. A folio titled, Pound That Melody! , contains seven of his pieces for piano. Kevin is currently writing a musical titled Armourdale, based on a true story.

Pat Ireland — Violin.
Although classically trained, Pat developed an early affinity for earthier forms of music and was a frequent competitor in old-time fiddle contests, of which he has won many. Pat is a music teacher and a prolific composer who has written in many musical genres. His CD releases include Fiddling Legacy, a CD of traditional old-time fiddle tunes and The Original, a CD of his original fiddle tunes. He has performed at the Renaissance Festival in Los Angeles, where he appeared with Ron Wilson, the drummer on the legendary surf hit recording Wipe Out by The Surfaris. A much sought after session musician, Pat has appeared on many local recordings, including a session with George Tomsco, whose band The Fireballs had a hit with the song Sugar Shack, which reached #1 in 1963.

Bob Ault — Mandolin, Banjos
Bob is a composer, arranger, and has entertained everywhere from Carnegie Hall to Japan. He learned his authentic 100 year-old style of banjo from Howard Weilmuenster, a student of ragtime banjo great Fred Van Eps and from studying thousands of vintage recordings. Bob provided music for the off-Broadway show Fables in Slang in New York. For 37 years Bob was an assistant instructor for the History of Ragtime course at Washington University in St. Louis.