A native of Ohio, Scott Kirby began his study of music at the age of six, and continued formal piano instruction for seventeen years. He worked under Robert Howat of Wittenberg University of Ohio, and Sylvia Zaremba at the Ohio State University. After obtaining an English degree from Ohio State University, Kirby moved to New Orleans and began his professional music career, as a street performer. In the following four years, he recorded the complete rags of Scott Joplin, and made his debut at all of the major ragtime festivals in the United States, as well as festivals in Belgium, France, Norway, New Zealand, and Hungary.
Kirby has served as Musical Director of the โScott Joplin Ragtime Festivalโ in Sedalia, MO, and of the โRocky Mountain Ragtime and American Music Festivalโ in Boulder, CO, as well as director of the โSan Juan Islands Ragtime Institute.โ His appearances include a segment on CBS News Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood in 1998, and at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. Kirby co- founded a record company (Viridiana Productions, L.L.C.), has made 25 recordings, and has composed over 150 original works for piano and other instruments. Admired by fellow pianists including George Winston, and hailed by Time Magazine as an โace pianist,โ CBS Newsโ Charles Osgood agreed that โ...Critics call Scott Kirby one of the best interpreters of ragtime music on the scene today.โ
Kirbyโs artistic passion grew to include to visual art, and in 2005, while living in France, he completed 75 paintings and 28 piano compositions, including โThe Prairie Devotionals,โ The paintings (belonging to a set entitled โVisions of the Great Plainsโ) and the new musical works set the groundwork for his new multi-media project โMain Street Souvenirs.โ Kirby now lives in Boulder, Colorado and divides his time between composing, painting, performing and teaching.