Everett Burton Helm (17 July 1913, Minneapolis – 25 June 1999, Berlin) was an American composer, musicologist and music critic. He studied at Harvard, and then after having been awarded a travel fellowship, with

Gian Francesco Malipiero Gian Francesco Malipiero (; 18 March 1882 – 1 August 1973) was an Italian composer, musicologist, music teacher and editor. Life Early years Born in Venice into an aristocratic family, the grandson of the opera composer Francesco Malipiero, Gia ...

in Italy and

Ralph Vaughan Williams Ralph Vaughan Williams, (; 12 October 1872– 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over ...

in England. In 1948, he was appointed Music Officer for the occupying US army in Germany which introduced him to the Darmstadt ''

Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik "The Internationale" (french: "L'Internationale", italic=no, ) is an international anthem used by various communist and socialist groups; currently, it serves as the official anthem of the Communist Party of China. It has been a standard of th ...

'' in

contemporary classical music Contemporary classical music is classical music composed close to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st century, it commonly referred to the post-1945 modern forms of post-tonal music after the death of Anton Webern, and included seria ...

. Helm regularly participated in the Darmstadt summer schools over the next decades. From 1950 and into the 1960s, Helm worked as a music critic in Germany, writing for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...

'' and ''

Musical America ''Musical America'' is the oldest American magazine on classical music, first appearing in 1898 in print and in 1999 online, at musicalamerica.com. It is published by Performing Arts Resources, LLC, of East Windsor, New Jersey. History 1898–19 ...

''. In parallel, he was composing. The

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra The Berlin Philharmonic (german: Berliner Philharmoniker, links=no, italic=no) is a German orchestra based in Berlin. It is one of the most popular, acclaimed and well-respected orchestras in the world. History The Berlin Philharmonic was fo ...

commissioned and premiered his First Piano Concerto in 1951, the same year as his first opera, ''Adam and Eve'', was performed at the

Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden The Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden ('Hessian State Theatre Wiesbaden') is a German theatre located in Wiesbaden, in the German state Hesse. The company produces operas, plays, ballets, musicals and concerts on four stages. Known also as the ...

Sources

*Sonneck Society for American Music Bulletin, Volume XXV, no. 3
Obituary for Helm
. *Grove Music Online
article on Helm
American male classical composers American classical composers 1913 births 1999 deaths Harvard University alumni 20th-century classical composers Musicians from Minneapolis Pupils of Ralph Vaughan Williams American music critics American male journalists 20th-century American journalists Writers from Minneapolis American expatriates in Germany 20th-century American composers 20th-century American male musicians {{US-composer-20thC-stub