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.

Emil Hradecký (*1953) is one of the most significant Czech composer, arranger and piano teacher, who is often inspired by dance music and jazz in his works. However, Emil Hradecký's work is very extensive and his "non-jazz" compositions are very melodic, pleasant to listen to and popular among teachers and their students