Jared DiBartolomeo

An engineering graduate of University of California at Irvine, Jared DiBartolomeo helps revive ragtime for a new generation.
A lifelong enthusiast of ragtime and vintage piano music, Jared was first exposed to ragtime at the age of two when his father played 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. After receiving a folio of Scott Joplin’s rags and some recordings, Jared dove deeper into ragtime enthusiasm. Over the next several years, under the mentorship of ragtime greats Marty Eggers and Virginia Tichenor, he expanded his repertoire to include the works of other ragtime composers, as well as novelty piano and stride piano. In recent years, he has focused on the more sophisticated novelty genres of the 1920s, from the early works of such composers as Roy Bargy and Zez Confrey, to the later impressionistic and introspective styles of Lee Sims and Bix Beiderbecke.

For nearly as long as he has had an interest in ragtime, Jared has been a fan of mechanical musical instruments. He currently owns an Ampico reproducing piano and a collection of piano rolls mastered by such artists as Adam Caroll, Edgar Fairchild, J. Milton Delcamp, and Henry Lange, from which he draws inspiration.

Jared has participated in the West Coast Ragtime Festival since 2005 and has had numerous opportunities to perform at San Francisco’s Pier 23, the SRS Ragtime Corner at the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee, the Sutter Creek Ragtime Festival, and the Eau Claire Ragtime Festival.