Ragtime pianist & composer · Oakdale, California
Tom Brier, the modern master of ragtime
Tom Brier (born October 3, 1971) is an American ragtime pianist and composer. He has written more than 200 piano pieces, among them the modern ragtime standard “Razor Blades,” and spent three decades playing ragtime festivals across the United States, known for his powerful playing and his knack for sight-reading almost anything put in front of him.
- 200+piano compositions: rags, fox trots, stride & novelty
- 1994first album, Rising Star, on Stomp Off Records
- 2023Ragtime Outstanding Achievement Award, Scott Joplin International Ragtime Foundation
- 1982first composition, “Pine Cone Rag,” written at age 11
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“Razor Blades,” Tom Brier’s best-known rag
Written in 1994, “Razor Blades” has become a standard of the modern ragtime repertoire. It has been described as a modern counterpart to Scott Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag.” Press play to hear it.
Tom Brier: Razor Blades
Video shared on the Keeper1st YouTube channel, run by Ron O’Dell, who posted many of Tom’s performances online.
Explore Tom Brier’s music and story
Biography
From a player piano at age four to ragtime festival stages, plus the 2016 accident and where Tom is today.
Read the biography →Albums & discography
Every album from Rising Star (1994) to Vintage Ragtime (2016), duets with Nan Bostick, and where to stream them.
Browse the discography →Videos
Performances, tributes and arrangements of Tom’s music, ready to play right here.
Watch videos →Compositions
A searchable list of Tom’s rags, fox trots and novelty pieces, with years and the stories behind them.
Search compositions →
Recognition
In 2023 the Scott Joplin International Ragtime Foundation presented Tom Brier with its Ragtime Outstanding Achievement Award, accepted on his behalf by his longtime friend Warren Jennings at the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival in Sedalia, Missouri. His recordings with Nan Bostick of “Borneo Rag” and “Indian Summer” were also featured in Ken Burns’s 2005 documentary Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson, and the annual Tom Brier Scholarship at the Historic Sutter Creek Ragtime Festival carries his name.