RECORDING PROJECT: THE COMPLETE (PUBLISHED) PIANO WORKS OF ROBERT HELPS

This recording represents the complete solo piano works of Robert Helps (1928-2001). As of this writing (March, 2008), approx.120 minutes of Helps' solo piano music has been published, all of which is included on the Digital Media (CD). This project includes the following works: Trois Hommages, Quartet, Nocturne, Valse Mirage, In Retrospect, Three Etudes, Portrait, Three Etudes for the Left Hand, Starscape, Recollections, Shall We Dance and Image. (His few remaining pieces are officially "pending publication" and are therefore not included in this project.) Robert Helps, American pianist and composer, enjoyed a successful career on both fronts, teaching at such institutions as San Francisco Conservatory, Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley, the New England Conservatory, the Manhattan School of Music and Princeton University. Helps, never the recipient of a university or conservatory degree, received private instruction from pianist Abby Whiteside and composer Roger Sessions. His recording of the Sessions' Sonatas is considered to be their benchmark performance. As a composer, he received commission and awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Ford Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Helps' compositions were anachronistic in style: his compositional style ranges from Post-Impressionism, Neo­ Romanticsim and early 20th century Atonalism, although he never engaged in serial practices. Since his death in 2001, the Robert Helps Trust has been established at the University of South Florida. Funds are being used to support the continued publishing of his scores. The Robert Helps International Composition Competition and Festival was established in 2005.

OPERA IN AMERICA: MUSIC OF, BY, AND FOR THE PEOPLE­: A PERFORMANCE DISSERTATION

Opera in America: Music of, by, and for the people is a study of the relationship between American popular culture and opera in the United States. Four performance projects demonstrate the on-going exchange between the operatic community-including its composer, singers, and patrons-and the country's popular entertainment industry with its broad audience base. Numerous examples of artistic cross pollination between lowbrow and highbrow music will illustrate the artistic and social consequences created by this artistic amalgamation. Program #1, By George! By Ira! By Gershwin!, is a retrospective of Gershwin's vocal music representing a blending of popular and serious music in both style and form. The concert includes selections from Porgy and Bess, a work considered by many musicologists as the first American opera. Program #2, Shadowboxer, is a premiere performance of an opera by Frank Proto and John Chenault. For this newly commissioned work, I serve as Assistant Director to Leon Major. Shadowboxer provides a clear example of opera utilizing popular culture both musically and dramatically to tell the true story of American hero and legendary boxer, Joe Louis. Program #3, Just a Song at Twilight, is an original theatrical music piece featuring music, letters, diaries, and journals of the Gilded Age, an era when opera was synonymous with popular entertainment. Special attention is focused on tum-of­ the-century singers who performed in both opera and vaudeville. Program #4 is a presentation of Dominick Argento's Miss Manners on Music and illustrates the strong relationship that can exist between opera and American popular entertainment. Originally conceived as a song cycle, I have staged the work as a one-act opera sung and acted by soprano Carmen Balthrop. This piece is based on the writings of pop icon and newspaper columnist Judith Martin, otherwise known as Miss Manners. All four performances are recorded in audio and video formats.