| Jean-Baptiste Lafrenière | |
| Birthname: | Jean-Baptiste Lafrenière |
| Birth Date: | 1874 |
| Birth Place: | Maskinongé, Quebec |
| Death Date: | January 4, 1912 (aged 37) |
| Death Place: | Montréal |
| Spouse: | Victoria Danis |
| Children: | 2 |
| Education: | Collège Saint-Joseph Université Laval (dropped out) |
| Occupation: | Composer, musician |
| Yearsactive: | 1885–1912 |
Jean-Baptiste Lafrenière (1874 – January 4, 1912) was a Canadian pianist and composer noted for his work in the ragtime genre.
Born in Maskinongé, Quebec in 1874, Lafrenière grew up in Montreal and Louiseville before beginning his musical education at the collège Saint-Joseph in Berthierville. He would go on to study at Université Laval in other disciplines before reorienting back towards music in 1893 at 19 years old.
From 1885 to 1898, he gave piano lessons and served as chapelmaster at the Saint-Charles-Borromée church in Joliette and led the local Ceclian Society. He established himself in Montreal, where he played in cabarets and worked in the Théâtre National and the Théâtre Français.
At the beginning of the 20th century, he began to venture into modern musical genres, taking a particular interest in the rise of ragtime in the United States. Collaborating with Léo-Ernest Ouimet, he began his career at Ouimetoscope, where he worked until becoming an accompanist at the Théâtre des Nouveautés.
He composed many works; for the most part, he published in Le Passe-Temps. He most well-known piece is Raggity-Rag, which was reissued in 1967.
Nicknamed "The Canadian Strauss", despite his talents, Lafrenière lived a life of poverty and died during a bout with tuberculosis on January 4, 1912, aged only 37. Thanks to the work of Canadian pianist Mimi Blais(fr), Lafrenière's music has regained popularity and is now regularly heard on Radio-Classique Montréal.