Morning out music offers some tricks

By Casey Gillis

Published: May 28, 2008

Forte Chamber Music’s “Music Lovers’ Morning Out” will feature a variety of ragtime, stride and early jazz piano tunes.

The concert, called “Tricky Fingers,” is scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday at the Academy of Fine Arts’ Warehouse Theatre, and will feature performances by Lynchburg native Bryan Wright and his friend Martin Spitznagel.

Wright, who last performed here in 2006, has been a featured performer at the JVC Jazz Festival in New York City, the Scott Joplin International Ragtime Festival in Missouri and the Oklahoma Centennial Ragtime Festival in Tulsa. He earned an undergraduate degree in music at the College of William and Mary and a master’s in historical musicology at the University of Pittsburgh, where he is currently working toward a Ph.D.

Wright, 25, also operates Elite Syncopations Radio, a 24-hour all-ragtime Internet radio station and hosts a vintage jazz and big band show every week.

“He has quite a following in Lynchburg,” says Martha Goodman, a member of Forte Chamber Music. “(He plays) ragtime music, and it’s just peppy and fun.”

Spitznagel, also 25, is an award-winning pianist and composer. He began playing ragtime music at age 14, when he participated in Calliope Media’s “Crazy for Ragtime” competition, and has since studied with noted jazz pianist and pedagogue Tony Caramia and Grammy-nominated pianist Brian Holland. He recently released his debut album, “Tricky Fingers.”

Tickets to the event are $20 per person and are available at the Academy of Fine Arts, Givens Books and Macon Bookshop. Call (434) 258-1659 for more information.