The Ragtime Rebels

The Ragtime Rebels marimba band, under the direction of Assistant Director of Percussion Studies, Dr. Timothy Jones, at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, makes its third appearance at the World Championship Old-time Piano Playing Contest and Festival in 2013. Organized in 1989 by Dr. Dean Gronemeier of UNLV (brother of 1992 champ Paul Gronemeier) to play at the contest when it was held in Decatur, IL, the group continues to represent the university in the spirit of their “Runnin' Rebels” basketball team, promoting the appreciation and enjoyment of ragtime music as played on both the marimba and xylophone.

This time the Ragtime Rebels are featured performers on the World's Greatest Sing-along Show on Saturday night and will also conduct two workshops (Friday afternoon and Sunday morning) as described in our contest schedule.

Rather than transporting instruments with them from Las Vegas, the Ragtime Rebels will use ones borrowed from Illinois State University in Normal, where an alum of the group, Ben Stiers, is now on the faculty. Dr. Stiers will also join in the group's performance Saturday night.