Album Notes

This collection of danzas, waltzes, Terra Verde and other syncopated specialties is played brilliantly by ragtime and classical composer/pianist Glenn Jenks. A delightful blend of Latin-American and romantic piano sensibilities, of old and new music, Invitation to the Danza represents the eleventh release of new World Piano Music from Viridiana.

About The Company:

The recordings of Viridiana Productions, L.L.C. represent a grass roots movement designed to promote the new music Terra Verde, as well as various traditions from which it draws. Terra Verde, a contemporary and distinctly American musical art form, fuses elements of European romanticism with New World ethnic styles, such as ragtime, jazz, Latin-American and country.The result is a rich and vital language for our time, and a new stage in the evolution of piano-based composition. Viridiana exists to champion the composers and performers of Terra Verde, and to pay tribute to the innovative and sometimes unheralded forerunners to this exciting new realm of American music.

About the Artist:

Glenn Jenks is a pianist, composer, performer, educator, raconteur, and wicked-hot banjo picker. He combines many elements of stagecraft with extraordinary musicianship. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, he has performed across the United States and Canada with Jud Strunk, Gordon Bok, Dick Hyman, Max Morath, and Doc Watson. His ragtime festival appearances include Sedalia, Toronto, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, and Norfolk. Jenks is a very prominent ragtime pianist and recording artist, and one of the most prolific and imaginative composers of the ragtime revival. Glenn produces the annual Harvest Ragtime Revue, a family oriented variety show which tours his home state of Maine each October. He is listed in Who's Who in Music.