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Critical Acclaim:
"Ragtime and opera joined hands and danced together in the most joyous fashion at Stern Grove on Sunday afternoon, with a vigorous and utterly charming performance of Scott Joplin's "Treemonisha"...the score, superbly led by conductor Rick Benjamin, is a resourceful marvel....For this performance Benjamin...unveiled his new arrangement of "Treemonisha" for the 11-piece Paragon Ragtime Orchestra. That lithe, pungent blend of strings, woodwinds and brass...gave the performance a lively grace that helped fill the sunny meadow to perfection."
-The San Francisco Chronicle
"Summoning both the subtle interplay and brassy vitality these pieces demand, the PRO does itself proud."
-The Washington Post
"As you listen...you'll begin to understand why ragtime captured America for a whole generation."
-CD Review Magazine
"The results were irrestible. Halfway throught the opening Knock-Out
Drops Rag, someone enthused audibly,
'Gee, they're terrific!' She was
right."
-The Buffalo News
"For nearly a decade now, the twelve-member Paragon Ragtime Orchestra has been touring the country in the ghostly footsteps of the thousands of 'theater orchestras' that once played in every hotel, vaudville hall, and fair- sized restaurant. Few of them can have played with more bite and sparkle than the Paragon."
-American Heritage Magazine
"Four Stars...The music is incomparably sweet and stirring. And Rick Benjamin, who founded and conducts the PRO, is a musician of wit and sensibility."
-The Philadelphia Inquirer
"Benjamin and his orchestra filled the second half of the evening with lilting, humorous, and even elegant readings of ragtime numbers, a W. C. Hand blues song, and even a Sousa march...Popular music, A.D. 1900, is still going strong."
-Pasadena Star News
"Best of all, the concert came off not as a dry musicological dig, but as an evening of...abidingly energetic fun."
-The New York Times
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