Ryan Wishner, now 16, started playing the piano about five and a half years ago, and immediately started playing ragtime. At first he only played Joplin rags, but now plays anything from L. M. Gottschalk to Zez Confrey pieces. Even though Ryan enjoys pretty much all ragtime, classic rags and ragtime pop-songs are his favorites.

In 2012 Ryan bought an old player piano to help him learn songs from piano rolls. After listening to many piano rolls Ryan started trying to sound like one when playing by hand. 

Along with the player piano, Ryan has a Victrola, some original sheet music, and many other antiques. In his free time Ryan works on rebuilding the player piano, one section at a time. Ryan also rebuilds other old “junk” – mostly old clocks. Ryan researches ragtime music, composers, and publishers, especially the Stark Music Company.