Durango Ragtime and Early Jazz Festival RETURNS!

Historic Strater Hotel and Durango Arts Center

April 3-6, 2025

Ticket Packages Available HERE

 

JOIN US for the return of the Durango Ragtime and Early Jazz Festival in April 2025! The greatest ragtime and classic jazz musicians from around the United States will descend upon the beautiful mountain town of Durango, Colorado, for four days of concerts, silent movies, seminars, after hours jam parties, and much more. All events will take place at the Durango Arts Center and the Historic Strater Hotel, only two blocks apart. The Diamond Belle Saloon is one of the most ideal venues for this type of music in the country, and the DAC has a gorgeous 9-foot grand piano for our concerts. CELEBRATE America’s first truly original music—ragtime and jazz—in an incredible location, Durango, Colorado.

 

 

2025 Festival Musicians

Adam Swanson is one of the world’s foremost pianists and historians of vintage
American popular music, including ragtime, early jazz, the Great American Songbook, and
more. Adam has been a featured performer and lecturer at ragtime and jazz festivals across the
United States and abroad, and he is the only four-time winner of the World Championship Old-
Time Piano Playing Contest. He made his New York debut in Carnegie Hall at the age of
nineteen, where he performed with Michael Feinstein. Adam appeared alongside pianist John
Arpin at the Bohem Ragtime and Jazz Festival in the Republic of Hungary, and he has also
toured Switzerland and Australia. Adam has accompanied silent films at the prestigious Cinecon
Classic Film Festival in Hollywood and performed privately for Oscar-winning
Disney/Hollywood composer Richard M. Sherman (Mary Poppins, etc.). At the age of twenty-
one, Adam performed a solo concert at the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage in Washington,
D.C.

Adam holds a bachelor’s degree in classical piano and a master’s in musicology from the
Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University. He has been mentored by other ragtime
artists including the famed Max Morath and legendary 1950s recording artist Johnny Maddox,
who was one of Adam’s greatest influences. Adam has recorded albums with noted musicians
such as former rock star Ian Whitcomb, the Peacherine Ragtime Society Orchestra, and the Bar
D Wranglers, a classic western band. Adam’s recordings have been used on the CBC TV show
Murdoch Mysteries. He lives in Durango, Colorado, where he frequently performs in the
Diamond Belle Saloon at the Historic Strater Hotel. Listen to Adam’s livestream virtual concerts
on his Facebook page and YouTube channel. Visit Adam online: www.adamgswanson.com.

Jeff Barnhart is an internationally renowned pianist, vocalist, arranger, bandleader,
recording artist, ASCAP composer, educator and entertainer. Jeff shares his mastery of the
classic swing, jazz, and ragtime repertoire of the early to mid-20th century with a versatility and
vibrant energy that finds him constantly appearing as a soloist, band pianist, and with smaller
groups—most notably Ivory & Gold® with his talented wife, flutist/vocalist Anne Barnhart—at
parties, festivals, clubs, and cruises throughout the world.

His unsurpassed knowledge of the history of America’s early pop styles and its best
current practitioners, combined with his superior “people skills,” has awarded him the position of
Musical Director for several acclaimed annual events, including the Eagles&Ivories and
Templeton Ragtime and Jazz festivals, the Monterey Jazz Bash by the Bay (as Co-Creative
Consultant), and the Essex (CT) Winter Series Jazz Concert. Jeff has played dual piano with such jazz luminaries as Ralph Sutton, Neville Dickie, Louis Mazetier, John Sheridan, Brian Holland, and Carl Sonny Leyland.

He has recorded over 120 full-length albums on, in addition to his own label, Jazz Alive Records, several celebrated
labels including Arbors, GHB, Lake Records (UK) and Music Minus One. Reviewer Jack
Rummel summed up the reason for Jeff’s popularity, averring, “When it comes to talent, speed,
versatility, creativity, mastery of multiple genres and just plain entertaining zaniness, Jeff
Barnhart stands alone.” In addition to his active performance and recording schedule, Jeff is a dedicated and
enthusiastic educator. His double BA’s in Music and English, combined with his MA in
Education, make Jeff a formidable and entertaining force in clinic, masterclass and inspirational speaking forums and as a lecturer (with his wife) for Road Scholar with the program called, “Ragtime, Tin Pan Alley, Jazz and the Blues.”

Danny Coots began playing drums at the tender age of 6 years old. Since then, he has
studied with Nick Baffaro, Rich Holly, Alan Koffman and Jim Petercsak in percussion. Danny
attended The Crane School of Music and St. Lawrence University. He eventually served as
adjunct faculty at St. Lawrence University, Clarkson University and Potsdam State University
from the 1970s into the 1990s. He continued traveling and performing with David Amram, Ray
Shiner, Daniel Pinkham, Herb Ellis, Will Alger, Jack Mayhue, Speigle Wilcox, Mimi Hines, Phil
Ford, Bob Darch, Pearl Kaufman and Arthur Duncan.

In 1996 Danny moved to Nashville, Tennessee and has lived there ever since. Danny has
recorded extensively in Nashville, New York and L.A. and has appeared in over 100 countries.
He has played on over 100 recordings, one of which won a Grammy in 2005. After moving to
Tennessee, Danny joined the Jack Daniel’s Silver Cornet Band for 5 years and helped found the
Titan Hot Seven. During this time he played and recorded with Dick Hyman, Houston Person,
Bob Wilber, Johnny Varro, Jeff Coffin, Tim Laughlin, Harry Allen, Dave Hungate, Bill Allred,
John Allred, Randy Reinhart, Ron Hockett, John Cocuzzi, John Sheridan, Dan Barrett, Vince
Giordano… to name a few. www.dannycoots.com

Frederick Hodges is hailed by the press as one of the best concert pianists in the world,
and has established a reputation specializing in late romantic music as well as Ragtime,
Broadway and Hollywood musicals of the first half of the 20th century by America's best
composers, such as George Gershwin and Cole Porter. He maintains a busy concert schedule of
stage, television, radio, and film appearances around the globe.
Additionally, he is a much sought-after silent-film accompanist for both live
performances and DVD. He performs regularly at the Hollywood Heritage Museum, the Niles
Essanay Silent Film Museum in California, the Cinecon Film Festival in Hollywood, The TCM
Classic Film Festival in Hollywood, The San Francisco Silent Film Festival, and at other silent
film festivals around the country. He also performs at music festivals such as the Sacramento
Music Festival, the West Coast Ragtime Festival, and the Sedalia Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival.
His website is www.frederickhodges.com.

 One can’t imagine the vintage music scene today without the influence of Donald Neely,
the founder of the long-running Royal Society Jazz Orchestra. The California based bandleader,
multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, composer and arranger has nearly 50 years of musical experience
playing tunes from the 1920s and 30s. He expanded the audience for hot syncopated music
beyond the Bay Area without sacrificing authenticity. Dapper Don, with his silver hair and
mustache making him look like the elder statesman he has become, still performs around
California with other bands as well as his own 11 piece Royal Society Jazz Orchestra.

Whether performing the masterworks of Scott Joplin or the score to Star Wars, Martin
Spitznagel is truly at home on the piano bench. A sought-after performer and decorated
composer, he found success early, winning a Yamaha Disklavier at the age of 14 in ​Calliope
Media’s nationwide Crazy for Ragtime competition. His entry, chosen from the hundreds of
submissions by a panel of judges that included world‐renowned violinist Itzhak Perlman,
coincided with the centennial of the birth of ragtime music in 1897.

Despite this early success, Martin was largely self‐guided until 1998, when he met
Eastman School of Music pianist and pedagogue Dr. Tony Caramia, who challenged him to “find
the surprise” in every performance. In 2011, Martin was selected as the Scott Joplin
Foundation’s Artist in Residence, and in May he claimed the title “World Champion of Old-
Time Piano Playing” at the World Championship Old‐Time Piano Playing Contest.

Domingo Mancuello is a stage manager currently on tour with Back to the Future: The Musical. When not backstage, he devotes his time to playing ragtime and music of the 1920s. He has placed as high as third in the regular division of the World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest. Domingo has performed as pianist and vocalist at the “Blind” Boone Ragtime and Early Jazz Festival in Columbia, MO, the Central Pennsylvania Ragtime and American Music Festival, and more. He has played a wide variety of ragtime festivals, house concerts, and non-profit fundraisers.