Internationally Celebrated Pianist Cecile Licad Releases New Album: Scott Joplin—King Of Ragtime, On Danacord Records, July 17, 2026

Acclaimed Filipina pianist Cecile Licad is releasing Scott Joplin – King Of Ragtime on the Danacord Records label. The official release date is July 17, 2026, and the album is now available on all major music streaming platforms.

“After performing Scott Joplin’s music extensively in recital during the 2024-2025 season, I came to feel that these works benefit from breadth, space, and sustained listening,” writes Ms. Licad. “Presented across two discs, the program allows each rag to retain its individuality while revealing the remarkable range of invention within Joplin’s language. No two pieces speak in the same voice, and the extended format lets the music breathe without compression or fatigue.”

For more information, please visit Danacord Records label’s website.  The full program follows:

Hailed as “a pianist’s pianist” by The New Yorker, Cecile Licad has captivated audiences worldwide with her daring musical instinct, mesmerizing stage presence, and artistry encompassing a wide range of musical styles and influences. Critics have praised her interpretive depth, poetic imagination, and impeccable technique.

Ms. Licad studied at the Curtis Institute of Music with three legendary performer-pedagogues: Rudolf Serkin, Seymour Lipkin, and Mieczyslaw Horszowski. Their mentorship profoundly shaped her artistic development, refining her musicianship while encouraging a spirit of exploration and individuality.

As an orchestral soloist, Ms. Licad’s repertoire spans the classical masterpieces of Mozart and Beethoven, the great Romantic literature of Brahms, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Schumann, and Rachmaninoff, and 20th-century works by Debussy, Ravel, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and Bartók. She has appeared with major orchestras including the Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, National Symphony, and Los Angeles Philharmonic, collaborating with conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta, and Seiji Ozawa.

A passionate chamber musician, Ms. Licad has collaborated with esteemed ensembles including the New York Chamber Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Guarneri Quartet, Takács Quartet, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and Music from Marlboro. Summer festival appearances have included Caramoor, Tanglewood, the Mostly Mozart Festival, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and the Great Mountains Music Festival.

Ms. Licad’s artistry can be heard on the MusicMasters, Naxos, Sony Classical, as well as Danacord labels. Her acclaimed recording of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Chicago Symphony conducted by Claudio Abbado remains a celebrated interpretation.

Known for her adventurous artistic spirit, Ms. Licad continually seeks new creative challenges beyond the standard repertoire, embracing discovery and exploration as essential to artistic growth. Recent interdisciplinary projects have included a West Coast tour accompanying live screenings of filmmaker Dan Pritzker’s silent film Louis, featuring an all-star ensemble led by Wynton Marsalis.

Ms. Licad continues to expand her ongoing anthology of American music, a multi-volume recording project dedicated to exploring the richness, originality, and diversity of the American repertoire. The series now spans six volumes, including her recent recording devoted to the piano rags of Scott Joplin, with a seventh volume, American Etudes, currently in progress

For further information, please contact Hemsing Associates at (212) 772-1132 or visit www.hemsingpr.com.

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