Scott Joplin, known as the King of Ragtime music, was born in 1868.

At the early age of seven, he was beginning to play the piano. By age eleven and under the tutelage of Julius Weiss, he was learning the finer points of harmony and style.

After several years as a travelling pianist playing in saloons and brothels throughout the Midwest, Joplin settled in St. Louis in 1890. It was there that he became one of the leaders in the creation of a new genre known as ragtime.

In the late 1890s, Joplin worked at the Maple Leaf Club in Sedalia, Missouri which provided the title for his best known composition, the Maple Leaf Rag. This was followed a few years later by The Entertainer, another well known Joplin composition. Over the next two decades, Joplin continued to write eventually amassing sixty compositions.

Although Joplin's music was popular and he received modest royalties during his lifetime, he did not receive recognition as a serious composer until 1973, when his music was featured in the motion picture, The Sting, which won and Academy Award for its film score.