Backstage (and onstage) Photos

Scroll down to view an assortment of candid photos from Paragon’s 33 year career. We will add others from our “scrapbooks” as time permits.

Since 1986 the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra has given 1,192 performances across 48 U.S. states, Canada, and several European countries. These have taken place in 884 different venues, including hundreds of America’s surviving historic theaters – the Orchestra’s “natural habitat.”

Another good sign on the road: A big billboard for your concert on the highway into town. (Wisconsin, April 2016)

PRO’s final concert of 2012 – sold out. (December 2012). Photo courtesy Vasko Dukovsky.

Conductor Rick Benjamin with PRO outdoors (July 2012). Photo courtesy Scott Williams.

PRO performing its 600th silent film screening at Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, California (February 27, 2010). Photo courtesy Bill Kelly.


PRO honoring inventor Thomas Edison with special concert at his mansion in Orange, New Jersey (June 5, 2010). Photo courtesy U.S. National Park Service.


Rick Benjamin shows an audience his conducting baton, which was once owned by John Philip Sousa (August 2009). Photo courtesy Tiffini Scott.

Rick Benjamin (kneeling, right) and the leads of the Opera Memphis production of  Scott Joplin and Treemonisha. Mr. Benjamin orchestrated and conducted this production, which starred Anita Johnson and Jonathan Tuzo (January 2009).

PRO recording their George M. Cohan historic recreation album at the American Academy of Arts and Letters (June 2008).
Read the Wall Street Journal‘s coverage of this project here:
“Benjamin’s Ragtime Band Captures the Real Cohan.”

PRO in the ‘pit,’ playing the original score for Douglas Fairbanks’ 1920 silent film The Mark of Zorro (May 2008).

Mr. Benjamin rehearsing PRO in Minneapolis Orchestra Hall for one of the two PRO concerts presented there by the Minnesota Orchestra (September 2006; December 2007).

The Paragon Ragtime Orchestra’s own acclaimed production of Scott Joplin’s 1911 opera Treemonisha, featuring a new reconstruction of the score by Rick Benjamin; onstage at Wake-Forest University (October 2005).

…still nice to see the name in lights. One of our favorite 1920s movie “palaces” – Akron’s Civic Theatre (2006).

New York Debut! PRO at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. The New York Times‘ glowing review of this concert was a huge career boost (March 1988).

Rick Benjamin risks a time/space continuum rift by using a microphone at the Civic Center in Madison, Wisconsin  (1995)

More usually, Mr. Benjamin relies on his period-correct megaphone. But what is he telling this audience? “TO THE LIFE BOATS!” perhaps? Except they’re in Kansas…(2008). Photo credit: Hugh Pickens.

“Places for top of show!” – ace clarinetist Dave Griffiths readies for action at the Ravinia Festival (August 2001).

PRO plays Pittsburgh's historic Byham Theatre

The Orchestra has brought silent film programs to Pittsburgh’s historic Byham Theatre in that city’s “Playhouse Square.”

Rick Benjamin and the Orchestra recording their Whistler & His Dog CD in RCA’s famous “Studio A.”  This recording has been enjoyed by millions as the “soundtrack” of Disney’s Main Street, U.S.A. at Disneyland, Disney World, and Disneyland Paris (1987).

Rick Benjamin planning an upcoming concert in his c.1900 parlor. The piano is a fine 1872 Chickering, which he purchased in a Pennsylvania junk shop for $300 (2004). Photo Credit: The Daily Item.

More than 4,000 people attended the PRO’s presentation of “Treemonisha” at San Francisco’s Stern Grove Festival (2003). Photo Credit: Hari Anuki. 

Model T delivery: PRO’s instruments “arrive” in this cover photo for the Orchestra’s 1995 CD Knock Out Drops. The auto is Dr. J. Stanley Stratton’s award-winning 1910 Ford; the Orchestra’s original 1910 Ludwig & Ludwig drum set is finally seen too. This historic instrument has been heard on all PRO’s recordings and concerts since 1990.

The view from the drummer’s seat in the bandstand at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC (1989).

Eureka! Rick Benjamin recovers the Capitol Theatre orchestra library – 26 large wooden crates stuffed with silent film scores – from a dusty Washington, DC basement (1992).

The glamor of air travel! PRO enjoying the steerage section as usual. An irate portly civilian attempts to escape via the center aisle, enroute to Vancouver, B.C. (2002).

The name in lights – always a welcome sign on the road; in this case, at the historic Paramount Theatre in Cedar Rapids, Iowa (1999).

 

 

Pasadena Star News

"Benjamin and his orchestra filled the second half of the evening with lilting, humorous, and even elegant readings of ragtime numbers, a W.C. Handy blues song, and even a Sousa march…Popular music, A.D. 1900, is still going strong."
– Pasadena Star News

Kansas City Star

“This group is like a ragtime early music ensemble, striving to protect the integrity of this uniquely American musical genre.”
– Kansas City Star

Fanfare 2

“…delightfully infectious. The Paragon Ragtime Orchestra and its dynamic director have found a winning formula for educating the public in the most enjoyable way…”
– Fanfare magazine

LaCrosse Tribune

“The magical, musical time machine.”
– La Crosse Tribune

Washington Post 2

“Summoning both the subtle interplay and brassy vitality these pieces demand, the PRO does itself proud.”
– The Washington Post

Buffalo News

“The results were irresistible. Halfway through the opening Knock-Out Drops Rag, someone enthused audibly, ‘Gee, they’re terrific!’ She was right.”
– Buffalo News

American Heritage

“…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, vaudeville hall, and fair-sized restaurant. Few of them can have played with more bite and sparkle than the Paragon.”
– American Heritage magazine

Gramophone

“…genteel melodic lines swim like fish through pure water.”
– Gramophone magazine

BBC Music magazine

“superbly presented….prize-worthy.”
– BBC Music magazine

American Music magazine

“… a deft, crisp, and energetic group…. one of the premiere forces in the reassertion of this repertoire in our musical consciousness.”
American Music magazine

New York Times

“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

Wall Street Journal

“…protecting an important American treasure…not just be a pleasure to hear but for many a true revelation.”
– The Wall Street Journal

Washington Post

“Vibrantly revived music.”
– The Washington Post

Classics Today

“There’s plenty of variety here to give a representative sampling of some of the era’s finest pop music, and it’s all played with polish, authenticity, and all-out enthusiasm by the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra under Rick Benjamin’s inspired direction.”
– Classics Today

Fanfare magazine

“If PRO is not already labeled a national treasure it should be.”
– Fanfare magazine

Philadelphia Inquirer

“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

Denver Post

“To hear the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra play the compositions of Scott Joplin or Irving Berlin… is to hear the promise many Americans felt about the prospects for the U.S. a century ago.”
Denver Post

The San Francisco Chronicle

"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

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