Meet Me at the Fair! is a spectacular multi-media celebration of the world’s fairs, including the 1876 Centennial Exhibition, the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, the 1901 Pan-American Exposition, and the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition. In this program, world’s fair images by some of America’s greatest painters and photographers are paired with original world’s fair music, as performed by Rick Benjamin and the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra (official resident musicians of the U.S. Pavilion – 1992 World’s Fair).
Music played a key role in the success of all these great international festivals, launching both hit songs and the illustrious careers of many American musicians (including Scott Joplin and Sousa). This new PRO program reunites stirring world’s fair hits with the continuous projections of magnificent fairground images. There is audience participation (on “Meet Me In St. Louis, Louis”) and as a finale, the Orchestra accompanies the 1915 silent film A Visit to the World’s Fair using its original orchestral score. All is propelled forward with evocative and humorous narration by conductor Rick Benjamin.
