Prohibition Rags

A Lucky’s Speakeasy takeover that evokes 1920s prohibition era

Prohibition Rags plunges you into the musical, social and cultural ferment of the Prohibition Era, a time when creativity thrived underground and a simple backroom piano could become an act of quiet rebellion. Staged inside Lucky’s Speakeasy at QT Canberra, this concert channels the hidden bars and coded nightlife of the 1920s, where music shaped identity, defied authority and stitched communities together beneath the surface of the ‘dry years’. Cocktails flow, lights stay low and the room hums with the illicit glamour of a world that danced in spite of the rules.

At the heart of this experience is clarinet virtuoso David Griffiths, one of Australia’s most versatile and magnetic performers. A former New York resident who honed his craft with the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra and the New York Wind Soloists, Griffiths brings an insider’s fluency to this music. His clarinet playing – refined, mischievous and effortlessly expressive – carries the spirit of an era when swing was a secret language and rhythm a form of resistance. Alongside him, pianist Timothy Young unleashes the irresistible twang and swagger of honky-tonk piano, evoking crowded saloons, dance floors and the smoky haze of hidden jazz joints.

The program revels in the collision of classical craft and popular energy. Scott Joplin’s iconic rags set the pulse racing with their syncopated sparkle, while Gershwin’s Three Preludes smolder with bluesy sophistication. Stravinsky’s Three Pieces distil the sharp, modernist edges of the 1920s, offering a thrilling counterpoint to the era’s looseness and swing. Contemporary works by Elena Kats-Chernin and John Novacek extend the lineage with virtuosic wit and rhythmic bite, proving that ragtime’s spirit is as alive today as it was a century ago.

With prohibition-era cocktails in hand and music that celebrates risk, swagger and unrestrained joy, Prohibition Rags invites you to step into another world – one where the beat was bold, the night was young, and the dance never really stopped.

‘Prohibition Rags celebrates the spirit of music born in backrooms and bars during the dry years – when rhythm was a kind of resistance and swing a secret language’

Artists
David Griffiths clarinet
Timothy Young honky tonk piano

Program
George Gershwin Three Preludes (1926)
Igor Stravinsky Three Pieces (1920)
Elena Kats-Chernin Grand Rag (2021)
John Novacek Four Rags for Two Jons (2006)
Scott Joplin Rags (1899 – 1917)

Duration: 50 mins, no interval