the premiere of Treemonisha in Argentina with a team of 60 young artists at the in Buenos Aires. Another performance in Germany, falsely labelling itself as the German premiere, occurred on 25 April 2015 at the Staatsschauspiel Dresden under direction and choreography of . Performance skills Joplin's skills as a pianist were described in glowing terms by a Sedalia newspaper in 1898, and fellow ragtime composers Arthur Marshall and Joe Jordan both said that he played the instrument well. However, the son of publisher John Stark stated that Joplin was a rather mediocre pianist and that he composed on paper, rather than at the piano. Artie Matthews recalled the "delight" the St. Louis players took in outplaying Joplin. While Joplin never made an audio recording, his playing is preserved on seven piano rolls for use in mechanical player pianos. All seven were made in 1916. Of these, the six released under the Connorized label show evidence of significant editing to correct the performance to strict rhythm and add embellishments, probably by the staff musicians at Connorized. Berlin theorizes that by the time Joplin reached St. Louis, he may have experienced discoordination of the fingers, tremors, and an inability to speak clearly—all symptoms of the syphilis that killed him in 1917. Biographer Blesh described the second roll recording of "Maple Leaf Rag" on the UniRecord label from June 1916 as "shocking...disorganized and completely distressing to hear." While there is disagreement among piano-roll experts as to how much of this is due to the relatively primitive recording and production techniques of the time, Berlin notes that the "Maple Leaf Rag" roll was likely to be the truest record of Joplin's playing at the time. The roll, however, may not reflect his abilities earlier in life. A stronger performance, by Joplin, is held in the University of California at Santa Barbara's cylinder archive. It was apparently found in a mislabeled box of wax cylinders sold on eBay, long after Blesh examined the June 1916 recording, and is likely to date from earlier in Joplin's life, in April 1916. Although that recording is severely damaged, a cleaned-up MIDI version reveals a considerably stronger performance. Legacy Joplin and his fellow ragtime composers rejuvenated American popular music, fostering an appreciation for African-American music among European-Americans by creating exhilarating and liberating dance tunes. "Its syncopation and rhythmic drive gave it a vitality and freshness attractive to young