Announcing the 2008 Robert Helps Prize Winner!

Jerry (Chiwei) Hui, Composer Conductor

:: 2008 Helps Festival Schedule

 

The fourth annual Robert Helps Composition Competition and Festival will take place during February of 2009, celebrating not only the life and legacy of the late pianist-composer, but also the contributions of leading composers, historians, theorists and musical thinkers on the American musical scene. In addition to incorporating resident artists and scholars from the University of South Florida and the region, the festival has featured guests including Vivian Perlis, David Del Tredici, Augusta Read Thomas, Wes York, Richard Wernick, Benjamin C.S. Boyle, ensembles including the Florida Orchestra, Richard Zielinski Singers, Chai Found Music Workshop, and Helps Prize recipients Cheryl Frances Hoad, Kyong-Mee Choi and Jerry Hui. The festival emphasizes Robert Helps’ passion for educating emerging generations of musicians, and focuses on interaction between students and master figures in modern American music performance and thought.	::Click to download 2009 brochure (outside) (inside) Get latest version of Adobe  :: Travel to the Robert Helps Festival, February 2008     — Hotel (doc)     — Airlines (doc)     — Rental Cars (doc) :: Email for more Info :: Hear Robert Helps perform live :: View the Robert Helps discography :: View Robert Helps' Curriculum Vita (pdf) :: Read personal accounts about Robert Helps,     pianist-composer-teacher (coming) :: Submit a personal account about Robert Helps,     pianist-composer-teacher :: Connect to the Robert Helps Monument website     (http://helpsweb.free.fr) Past Festivals :: 2008 Robert Helps Festival Winner :: 2007 Robert Helps Festival Winner :: 2006 Robert Helps Festival Winner :: 2006 Robert Helps Festival
The Fourth International Competition and Festival for Emerging Composers Age 35 and Under In commemoration of the distinguished legacy of the eminent pianist and composer Robert Helps, the University of South Florida is pleased to announce the fourth international composition competition and festival for composers age 18-35.   Robert Helps (1928-2001) belonged to the small coterie of American new music pianists who emerged in the late forties and early fifties. He was also a highly original composer, whose work might be characterized as the missing link between the Columbia-Princeton atonal school and the “New Romanticism” movement that made tonality fashionable for composers in the 20th century’s final decades. As a much sought-after teacher, Helps embodied the legacy of his teacher Abby Whiteside, whose theories of musculature and physical rhythm stood apart from the mainstream of piano teaching in her day. Likewise, the influence of Roger Sessions on Helps’ career was early and lasting, and Helps was arguably the world’s leading exponent of his mentor’s piano music. From 1980 until his death from cancer at 73 in November 2001, Helps lived, taught, and made music in Tampa, where he was Professor of Music at the University of South Florida.* * *Jed Distler, Piano & Keyboard, Sept./Oct. 1996	Mission of the Robert Helps Prize: The Robert Helps Composition Competition and Festival are designed to encourage the development and enhance the career opportunities of emerging young composers, honoring the oeuvre and aesthetic of the late Robert Helps, while providing an annual archival commemoration in celebration of the pianism and pedagogy of Helps, the master teacher, as well as offering the University of South Florida as a significant and valuable resource for composers and lovers of the music of our time. The University of South Florida School of Music provides an appropriate forum for an international composition competition and festival commemorating and honoring the distinguished legacy of the late pianist-composer Robert Helps, one of the revered figures in American music and a beloved USF faculty member. Entering its sixth decade, the University of South Florida School of Music continues to be a beacon for leading composers, performers of new music, resident composers, theorists and artist-faculty, and listeners – all of whom participate in evolving, cutting-edge modernism. By establishing the Robert Helps Competition and Festival, the University of South Florida offers a valuable resource and provocative catalyst for thoughtful exchange in new music. This university’s historic commitment to modern works has generated literally thousands of performances, commissions and premieres at the USF campus and throughout the Tampa metropolitan area by resident artist-faculty and composers, guest artists and students. This institution’s track record of presenting the most challenging European and American literature spanning all genre through the 20th century to the present is well known, and also extends to repertories of the diverse geographies of Cuba, the Caribbean, Latin America, Korea, China, post-1980 Soviet, modern Baltic, and beyond. Composers, theorists, musicologists and performers have come to depend on this research institution’s innovative and creative work not only in performance, but also in theoretical research that focuses on modern thought and emerging shifts of approach in music. The University of South Florida is home to one of the most complete electronic studios in the country (SYCOM), and has recently been designated as the permanent home to the New York Bartok Archive and to the Robert Helps Archive in the USF Library Special Collections.
Instrumentation for 2009 Competition: solo piano Duration: 10 - 20 minutes Prize: $10,000 will be awarded to the composer of the winning composition Performance: The winning composition will be premiered in Tampa during February 2009 as a focal event of the 2009 Robert Helps Festival. The winner of the Robert Helps Prize shall arrange to be present at the premiere. Originality: The work must be an original unpublished composition with no prior public performances. Arrangements of compositions that have received a public performance will not be accepted. Any public performance before February 14th, 2009, whether it is by students, faculty, amateurs, professionals (paid or unpaid), and whether it was in a private, public, or academic venue, disqualifies the composition from the competition. A 'public performance' also includes formally attended public reading sessions, broadcast, or any recording that has been commercially released. Deadline: Scores and application materials must be received on or before October 1, 2008. Results will be announced on November 1, 2007. The winner of the Robert Helps Prize shall provide parts on or before November 1, 2008. Age restriction: Only applicants who will not have reached the age of 36 by February 14, 2009, will be considered. How to apply: All materials must be anonymous and marked only with a pseudonym of the composer's choice. Materials that have not had all identifiable markings removed will not be accepted. The composer's pseudonym and the title of the composition must be marked on each score and recording. Submit: 1) Three copies of full score 2) Recordings will be accepted, but are not required (send either MIDI or rehearsal recordings, but in the format of audio CD only - no cassettes, mp3s, or data discs) 3) A copy of birth certificate or passport indicating that the applicant shall not have reached the age of 36 by February 14, 2009 4) Application fee of $35 U.S. (money order/bank check) 5) The application form (print legibly)   Robert Helps Prize Attn: Dr. Svetozar Ivanov School of Music, FAH 110 College of Visual & Performing Arts University of South Florida 4202 E. Fowler Avenue Tampa, FL, 33620-7350   One of the three submitted copies will be retained and placed in the Robert Helps Archives of the University of South Florida Library Special Collections. An appropriately stamped return package or envelope will ensure the return of both remaining scores upon conclusion of the adjudication. For more info, contact: Dr. Svetozar Ivanov at 813.974.8172. Or go to the Helps Competition website: http://helpsprize.arts.usf.edu/.
	Scott Kluksdahl, chair ROBERT HELPS COMPOSITION COMPETITION   HONORARY BOARD Milton Babbitt            Idith Meshulam Bethany Beardslee       Garrick Ohlsson Anthony Checchia Bruce Phillips Edward Cumming Russell Sherman David Del Tredici        Gunther Schuller Frank Dodge   Michael Steinberg Alan Feinberg Augusta Read Thomas Jorja Fleezanis Joan Tower Richard Goode George Tsontakis John Harbison Wes York   BOARD Theresa Buckley John McCarthy Mark Greenberg Margaret Miller Scott Kluksdahl  Wade Weast   2009 COMPETITION JURY   TBA ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯   SCHOOL OF MUSIC College of Visual & Performing Arts University of South Florida 4202 E. Fowler Avenue, FAH 110 Tampa, FL 33620-7350 (813) 974-2311   For more information about supporting the Robert Helps Composition Competition visit http://helpsprize.arts.usf.edu