Piano-accompanied Read Aloud! – Honoring Scott Joplin

Enjoy this pre-recorded piano-accompanied real aloud of Stephen Costanza’s book, “King of Ragtime The Story of Scott Joplin.” Read by award-winning educator Jashonai Payne, with a performance of some of Scott Joplin’s compositions by award-winning pianist, Gil Scott Chapman!

About Jashonai Payne

Jashonai Payne is an elementary educator of 17 years. She is a National Board certified teacher who received her Bachelor’s in Psychology from Kean University and Master’s degree in Elementary Education from New York University. She has been a fellow of the National Writing Project, the Charlotte Teachers Institute, and the Yale National Initiative and has been voted Teacher of the Year for three years during her career. Her passion and career focus is Literacy education and multicultural children’s literature, in which children can read beautiful stories about the world and see themselves in the stories they read.

About Gil Scott Chapman

Gil Scott Chapman is a 31-year-old pianist, born and raised in the town of Westfield, NJ. He began his classical music studies at the age of 7 with Dr. Loretta Jankowski; where under her tutelage he won and placed in various piano competitions. Gil proceeded to earn his Bachelors in Jazz Studies–and Masters in Improvisation from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor)–where he also had the opportunity to study under world renown jazz pianists Geri Allen and Benny Green. He’s had the pleasure of participating and placing in various international piano competitions, in places such as South Africa, Switzerland, and England; and he currently enjoys spending six months out of each year performing in Northern Michigan at Mackinac Islands Grand Hotel.

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