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Biography of the PRO
The Paragon Ragtime Orchestra is the world's only year-round, professional ensemble re-creating "America's Original Music" - the syncopated sounds of early musical theater, silent cinema, and vintage dance. The PRO came into being as the result of Rick Benjamin's 1985 discovery of thousands of turn-of-the-century orchestra scores once belonging to Victrola recording star Arthur Pryor. In 1988 the Orchestra made its formal debut at Alice Tully Hall - the first concert ever presented at Lincoln Center by such an ensemble. Since then PRO has appeared at hundreds of leading arts venues, including the Ravinia Festival, the Smithsonian Institution, Chautauqua, the Brucknerhaus (Austria), the New York 92nd Street Y, and the American Dance Festival. In 1999 PRO's music inspired master choreographer Paul Taylor's new dance Oh You Kid! which was premiered at The Kennedy Center jointly by the Paul Taylor Dance Company and the Orchestra. In June, 2003 the PRO presented the premier of Rick Benjamin's new reconstruction of Scott Joplin's opera Treemonisha at San Francisco's Stern Grove Festival. In 2005 and again in 2006, Paragon had the honor of being presented in Minneapolis's Orchestra Hall as guests of the Minnesota Orchestra.
In addition to its worldwide concert hall, university, and festival appearances, the PRO has acquired a considerable following both here and abroad through its radio programs on the New York Times' WQXR, National Public Radio, the British Broadcasting Corporation, and the Voice of America networks. Since 1989 the Walt Disney Company has relied on the Orchestra's recordings for the outdoor theme music heard at Main Street, U.S.A. at Disneyland, Disney World, and Disneyland Paris; the PRO strengthened its international following during its extended engagement as a U.S. Ambassador of Goodwill at the 1992 World's Universal Exposition in Seville, Spain.
Over the years the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra has been heard on the soundtracks of several motion pictures and television programs. The Orchestra's audio and video recordings have been widely praised, and considered instrumental in rekindling interest in America's rich traditions of theater, cinema, and dance orchestra music.
Recordings: New World Records, Vanguard, Rialto, Newport Classic, Dorian, GB, and Gaslight.
Conductor Rick Benjamin, has built a career on the discovery and performance of lost American music from the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. He is the founder and director of the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra, which uses his extraordinary 10,000-title collection of antique theater and dance orchestra music (c.1875-1925) as the basis of its repertoire. In addition to his work with Paragon, Mr. Benjamin maintains active careers as a pianist, arranger, and tubist. As a guest conductor he has led many ensembles, including the National Orchestra of Ireland (Dublin), the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the Aalborg Symfoniorkester (Denmark), the Olympia Symphony (Washington State), the Erie Philharmonic, and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra (Reykjavik).
Mr. Benjamin is also an energetic researcher of music for silent films; he has unearthed the original orchestral accompaniments to many of the great motion pictures of the 1910s and '20s, which he conducts at film festivals around the world. His articles on popular music appear in several international periodicals, and lecture tours have taken him to more than one hundred colleges and universities throughout North America. Mr. Benjamin's four-year reconstruction of the Scott Joplin opera Treemonisha was recently premiered to great acclaim in San Francisco, and he is continuing work on his books The American Theater Orchestra and Encyclopedia of Arrangers & Orchestrators: 1875-1925. Website: http://www.rickbenjamin.com
Versatile soprano Jody Dall'Armi has
performed a variety of operatic roles and solo recitals both here and abroad. Since 1991 she has toured
America as PRO's featured soloist; her "beautifully clear, focused
soprano" (The Washington Post) has made her a favorite with audiences. Ms.
Dall'Armi made her European debut with a recital tour of Great Britain in 1986.
Subsequently she has appeared in Switzerland, Italy, and most recently, Russia.
As a guest artist at the Smithsonian Institution, she has presented many
concerts of American popular song, musical theater, and operetta repertoire. Ms.
Dall'Armi was a 1990 winner of the Liederkranz Competition in New York City, and
made her New York debut at Alice Tully Hall. Her recent recording, On The Level....Songs of Vaudeville & Tin Pan Alley (accompanied by the PRO) is enjoying considerable praise. A native of San Francisco, Jody Dall'Armi now resides in the greater Washington D.C. area.
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