About
Joshua Rifkin (born April 22, 1944) is an American conductor, pianist, and musicologist. He is currently a professor of music at Boston University. As a performer, he has recorded music by composers from Antoine Busnois to Silvestre Revueltas; as a scholar he has published research on composers from the Renaissance to the 20th century.
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Rifkin is known among classical musicians for his theory that most of Bach's choral works were sung with only one singer per choral line. Rifkin argued that "so long as we define 'chorus' in the conventional modern sense, then Bach's chorus with few exceptions simply did not exist."
He is best known among the public for helping to revive ragtime in the 1970s by recording three albums of Scott Joplin's works for Nonesuch Records.
Member of
Discography
Albums
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Piano Rags by Scott Joplin
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Piano Rags by Scott Joplin, Volume II
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Piano Rags by Scott Joplin, Volume III
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The Baroque Beatles Book
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Wedding Cantata, BWV 210
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Digital Ragtime / Wall Street Rag
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Organ Concertos, op. 4
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Oboe Concertos
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Cantatas BWV 147 "Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben", 80 "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott"
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Cantatas BWV 106 "Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit" (Actus tragicus), 131 "Aus den Tiefen rufe ich, Herr, zu dir"
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Piano Rags
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Cantatas BWV 140 "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme", 51 "Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen"
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Cantata BWV 202 “Weichet nur, bertrübte Schatten” / Cantata BWV 209 “Non sa che sia dolore”
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Rags & Tangos Apple Music
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Mass in B minor
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Vivat Leo! Music for a Medici Pope
Links
Concerts
Conductor position
Teacher
Tags
- american conductor
- american pianist
- conductor
- pianist
Identifiers
- MusicBrainz
- d63cbb12-0d16-4fd5-8fbf-a57dc8ddfe83
- ISNI
- 0000000108569451
Data from MusicBrainz, saved 8 Nov 2026. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, covers from the Cover Art Archive and Apple Music.