Scott Joplin Regional Music Celebration

The 1894 Gallery at the 1894 City Market downtown as a full slate of activites this weekend for the Scott Joplin Regional Music Celebration.

The 1894 Gallery will host an exhibit of paintings by Texarkana native H.M. Fort Jr. from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday. Tours of the future Regional Music Heritage Center nearby at 116 E. Broad St. will also be available until 6:30 p.m.

The gallery and market, located at Olive and Front streets, will screen the documentary “Scott Joplin: Hometown Hero” at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Friday for a $10 donation at the door.

Friday

The SJRMC main events include the Friday night gala preview party at Silvermoon on Broad with a performance by Grammy-nominated pianist Richard Dowling. Carol Miles and Candace Taylor will take the stage with Three of a Kind. A 1928 Marshall & Wendell player piano will also make an appearance. Gourmet snacks and drinks will be served. The party starts at 7 p.m.

The gala preview party tickets (sold at the door) are $18 with reservations, $20 without reservations and $14 with a ticket or receipt for Saturday night’s Perot Theatre Ragtime n’ Jazz show. To make reservations, text your RSVP to 903-4905471.

Saturday

At 7:30 p.m. at the Perot Theatre, it’s Ragtime n’ Jazz, which features Dowling, the Texarkana Ragtime Orchestra, the Texarkana Jazz Orchestra, Miles and the winners of the Four States Student Jazz Showcase and Ragtime Piano Contest. Dave Daily, a longtime local drum teacher, will be presented a Lifetime Achievement Award, and guitarist James Norton will receive the Young Musician Award.

Ragtime n’ Jazz tickets are $15 to $40. A student discount is available. Get tickets at the Perot Theatre box office or at TRAHC.org.

The Student Jazz Showcase, which is free to see, will feature competing school jazz bands from noon to 5:30 p.m. at Texarkana College’s Stilwell Theatre.

The Museum of Regional History will host a talk by musicologist Dr. John Tennison. Starting at 2 p.m., Tennison will present “Early Music of the Texarkana Region: Joplin & Others Before Him.”