Richard Egan (composer)

Richard Allen Egan Jr. (born 2 October 1959) is a ragtime pianist, composer, transcriber, and arranger.

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, from the ages of 8 to 12 Egan took rudimentary piano lessons from a local church organist, reaching the second year level of studies by his fourth year. He quit lessons, avoided the piano for two years, until he was introduced to Scott Joplin's music through the film The Sting in January 1974. He subsequently began to teach himself to play ragtime. He is considered to be one of the foremost musicians in the subgenre of Folk Ragtime.

Egan's first public performance occurred on 28 April 1985 as a contestant in the Rosebud Ragtime Piano Competition at Fontbonne College in St. Louis. Facing a single competitor, he won the Age 19-25 division. With the support of Trebor Jay Tichenor and daughter, Virginia Tichenor, he performed at ragtime festivals on the Goldenrod Showboat on the St. Louis levee from 1985 to 1989. Egan joined the board of directors of The Friends of Scott Joplin House in March 1989 and assisted in opening the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site in October 1991. He served as president of The Friends of Scott Joplin House from 1996 to 1999, directing the change in the organizational name to The Friends of Scott Joplin in 1997. As president, he oversaw the establishment of St. Louis’ monthly Ragtime Rendezvous on 2 November 1997, the commencement of an annual youth piano competition on 15 May 1999, and the erection of a monument on the grave of ragtime patriarch Tom Turpin on 12 September 1999. From 2006 to 2010, he served as chairman of the Friends of Scott Joplin competition committee. St. Louis Magazine's music issue listed him among "the 100 greatest musicians in St. Louis history."

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