Jared DiBartolomeo
Pleasant Hill, CA
Updated 11/13/05

Jared DiBartolomeo is 18 years old and attends Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, California. At 17 he earned his A.A. degree in liberal arts from the college, where he had been taking classes since he was 12, and is now planning a major in civil and transportation engineering.

Jared was first exposed to ragtime at an early age when his father, who had more time back then, would play the Maple Leaf Rag on the home piano. The syncopated rhythms left an impression on Jared, and at age eight he started taking formal piano lessons. Within a year and a half, he was playing a simplified version of The Entertainer. After receiving a folio of Scott Joplin’s rags and some recordings, Jared dove deeper into ragtime enthusiasm, and over the next nine years expanded his repertoire to include the works of other ragtime composers, as well as novelty and stride piano.

A major turning point occurred in 2004 when Jared chose ragtime as the subject of a research paper for a music literature class at Diablo Valley College. He attended the West Coast Ragtime Festival for the first time and had the opportunity to interview six musicians, one of whom was Marty Eggers, with his vast knowledge of ragtime and traditional jazz. Portions of Jared’s paper were later published in the West Coast Ragtimer. Jared began studying ragtime with Marty Eggers, and has had opportunities to play at San Francisco’s Pier 23, the SRS Ragtime Corner at the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee, and the Sutter Creek Ragtime Festival. He is looking forward to his first appearance at the West Coast Ragtime Festival.