Scott Joplin (1867-1917) was an African-American musician, pianist, and composer, one of the first representatives of ragtime music, who is now known as the King of Ragtime. During his career he wrote more than 100 ragtime and non-ragtime compositions, one ragtime ballet and two operas. His most famous compositions include Maple Leaf Rag, Elite Syncopations and The Entertainer, which even reached number three on the US singles chart in 1974.

Cowles Colin (* 1940) is an English composer and music teacher. He studied at Trinity College of Music at Cambridge and London University. He worked as a pedagogue until 1980 and has since became a freelance composer and performer. He has coached and conducted many County Youth Bands, Symphony Orchestras and Jazz Orchestras, and has adjudicated at music festivals. His work is almost always inspired by the English countryside and he has written more than 400 compositions. Colin plays a wide variety of instruments and has a wonderful sense of humour, which is also reflected in his pieces.