Born in Salina, Kansas and raised in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Brent Watkins has studied piano since the age of eight.

Trained in the classics, as a young teenager, Brent fell in love with ragtime piano in the early 70’s, when music from the motion picture “The Sting” was played on a local radio station.

He began his piano career by performing at the 2nd Annual Sedalia Ragtime Festival in 1975 while only 13. At age 15, he studied at the University of Missouri Conservatory of Music in Kansas City. He has also studied with renowned novelty pianist Bill Krenz. 

Brent has been a featured performer in coffee houses and concert halls throughout his home state of Iowa and the Midwest.

Author and Ragtime expert Ed Berlin describes Brent’s playing style as follows,

“Watkins plays with a great sense of the ragtime and stride styles, as we understand them. He tends to play his rags on the lively side, with a light, bouncy bass. He makes his rags happy, and they rollick with glee…”

Through his presentation “The Heroes of Parlor Town,” Brent combines film, oral history and spirited piano performances with a historical focus on African American composers of ragtime and the early jazz era.

In 2006, The Heroes of Parlor Town received a major media grant from Humanities Iowa and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Through this grant, Brent has recently completed the production of a short film documenting the role African Americans played in the ascendancy of American popular music during the early 20th century.

Brent is also a rostered Iowa artist and grant recipient from the Iowa Arts Council.

Additionally, Brent has been a featured radio and television performer on programs like National Public Radio's “All Songs Considered,” KCCK 88.3 FM and KSUI’s “Talk of Iowa.”