Nan Bostick is Scott Joplin Foundation's Artist in Residence

The Scott Joplin Foundation has announced that the 2012 Artist in Residence will be Nan Bostick. The Menlo Park, Calif., ragtime historian and pianist will be in the area Feb. 6 through 10 and plans to visit 11 area schools, including Dresden, Smithton, La Monte, Sacred Heart, St. Paul Lutheran and most schools in the Sedalia district.

Bostick is a featured performer at ragtime festivals around the country. She is the grandniece of ragtime era composer and publisher Charles N. Daniels, who helped Scott Joplin promote his first rag in 1899.

Bostick uses the experiences of her “Uncle Charlie” to provide a reflection on America’s early pop music industry. She is noted for her multi-media musical presentations, particularly her “From Gaslit Ragtime to Electrified Swing Time” public school program.

Bostick recently retired as an award-winning Language Arts curriculum designer (kindergarten through adult) and a Music Together teacher for children newborn to 4. She studied at Occidental College, Los Angeles, and San Francisco State and earned a Fulbright scholarship to Bolivia in 1964.

She is a frequent contributor to vintage music publications, most recently Arcadia’s new release “Images of America: Detroit Ragtime and the Jazz Age.” She is the acknowledged expert on the ragtime era of Detroit and contributed the entry on Detroit ragtime composer Harry P. Guy for the Harvard/Oxford African American National Biography.

Bostick continues tracking down details about ragtime’s women composers, having co-authored “The Lexicon of Ragtime’s Women Composers” with Nora Hulse, and is currently completing her great uncle’s biography.

Ken Burns used cuts from Bostick’s first CD in his PBS documentary on prizefighter Jack Johnson. Bostick’s own ragtime compositions are featured on her subsequent CDs available at CDBaby.com.