Three-time World Junior Ragtime Champion Daniel Souvigny will perform in concert at Nutt Auditorium at the University of Mississippi on Friday, March 24 at 7:30 pm. This 16-year old award-winning pianist from Hampshire, Illinois enjoys sharing his passion of ragtime, stride, and jazz piano with an audience. Daniel is a three-time Junior Champion of the World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest. In 2016 at the age of 15, he became the youngest to ever earn second place in the adult division of this Contest. Daniel also took the overwhelming vote of the audience, receiving first place in the Cutting Contest.
Daniel brings an abundance of energy to his performances, and is also a highly trained violinist who enjoys the variety and uniqueness that the fiddle can bring to ragtime and jazz music. In 2014, Daniel was awarded top honors in the Illinois State Talent Competition in Springfield, Illinois. He has had the honor of being a featured performer at many of the top ragtime and jazz festivals throughout the country. Reviews from these festivals have described Daniel as “the new sensation who plays with power and surprising musicality” and “a whiz kid whose fingers fly across the keyboard”. His first CD Tearin’ Up the Keys was released in 2013, and his latest album Possibilities in 2015 to which a reviewer stated, “He has mastered the art of improvisation.” Daniel recently spent a summer studying classical piano with a professor in St. Petersburg, Russia and also plays guitar and drums in his spare time.
The focus of his concert in Oxford will concentrate primarily on ragtime and early jazz prior to 1939, although he will include some later jazz. His performance will follow a timeline progressing from early ragtime to stride, traditional jazz and more modern jazz. Daniel will also appear on the Thacker Mountain Radio Hour the evening before. Advance tickets are available through the UM Box Office by calling (662) 915-7411. Tickets will also be available at the door on the night of the performance as space permits. This is a special preview concert in advance of the World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest & Festival taking place May 25-28 in Oxford. Revenue from ticket sales will go towards prize money for the Contest. For further information, contact Ian Hominick at (662) 915-1282. 
