I'm in the final stages of a very exciting project that I finally
feel ready to tell the world about.  Some time ago, the Scott Joplin
House State Historic Site in St. Louis received funding to create
brand-new player piano rolls of Joplin and other important ragtime
era music that, for various reasons, was never recorded for player
piano -- some of the Joplin waltzes and marches, for example.

Max Keenlyside created arrangements of the following five tunes,
based on period roll arranging styles:

  "Rosebud March" by Scott Joplin
  "Binks Waltz" by Scott Joplin
  "Bethena" by Scott Joplin
  "Harlem Rag" by Tom Turpin
  "Babe Its Too Long Off" by Louis Chauvin

I had originally worked closely on this with Robert Perry at Reliance
Music Rolls, New Zealand, and I wish to publicly thank him for his
work and support on this project.  However, using Rob's perforator,
the editing process required to make Max's excellent arrangements
work within the mechanical constraints of a player roll presented
insurmountable obstacles, and so the editing and perforation were
instead done by Adam Ramet and Julian Dyer in the UK, whose perforator
and related software were more easily able to translate Keenlyside's
arrangements into actual paper rolls.  Final editing is being done as
we speak and actual perforation should commence shortly.

The rolls themselves will debut to the public at the annual Memorial
Day Ragtime Rally at the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site on
Monday, May 27th, 2013.  A very limited number will be available for
sale at that time; stay tuned for further details regarding pricing,
etc.

I would like very much to thank everyone who has had a part in making
this wish and dream a reality.

Bryan Cather
St. Louis, Missouri