The Remarkable but Little-known Musical Career of Boston’s Helen Salem Rizk Philbrook
The Remarkable but Little-known Musical Career of Boston’s Helen Salem Rizk Philbrook
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| Helen Salem Rizk, The Caravan, 03 November 1960. Courtesy of Newspapers.com |
Here at Midwest Mahjar, we have come to reflect on the amount of time we’ve spent in Boston, Massachusetts -
actually and metaphorically. In our undergraduate days, the trek from Hanover, New Hampshire, to Boston provided
two hours of excitement and entertainment. In Boston, there was the historic Old North Church, Faneuil Hall, the
54th Massachusetts Regiment Memorial, and the monument dedicated to Crispus Attucks and the victims of the
Boston Massacre. More recently, our connection to Boston has been through its Historic Syriantown community and
the musical scene that emerged from it. We’ve written about G.S. Maloof, Anton Abdelahad, Ronnie Kirby, Tony
Tawa, Lila Stephen, Najeeba Morad, Ramza Abdelahad, Yvonne Maalouf Rahwan, and Mathilda Dada Stephens. All
lived most of their lives in and around Boston metro. The story of singer Helen Salem Rizk Philbrook is representative of a number of people we’ve featured on Midwest Mahjar - she sang classical opera and religious
hymns mostly in English. She was a scholar of Christian Hymns, a musical pioneer, and an educational philanthropist.
From the turn of the twentieth to the 1920s, Boston became home to the second largest population of immigrants from Greater Syria in the United States next to New York City. Approximately, 120,000 to 150,000 people from what is today Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine/Israel entered the United States and fanned out across the country from the Eastern Seaboard, north and south, across the Midwest and to the West Coast. Boston, alone, had one Maronite Catholic church, two Melkite Catholic churches, two Syrian Orthodox churches (courtesy of the Russo-Antucky split), and one Protestant church, according to Philip Hitt, by 1924. The Salem’s attended Saint George Orthodox Church founded in 1900. Boston’s Syriantown stood on Tyler, Hudson, and Harrison. One of the families to settle in Boston at 95 Hudson Street, and later 274a Shawmut Avenue, down the street from the future Sahara Restaurant, were John and Naheemi “Nellie” (nee Maloof) Salem and their daughter Zakia from Hadath-Baalbak, Syria (now Lebanon). They arrived in October 1907. By 1925, they had Mae (1914), Betty (1915), Mansaur (1917), James (1919), and Josephine (1922). Their last child, Helen, was born 2 September 1926.
It should come as no surprise that John Salem worked in a shoe factory, as a shoemaker, and then eventually as a restaurant waiter and restaurant owner. The Salem’s adult children worked in textiles as dressmakers, clothing manufacturers, and salespeople. Meanwhile, Helen attended Abraham Lincoln, Oliver Hazard Perry, and Franklin High schools.
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| Helen Salem Helms, 08 January 1950, Kingsport Times News. Courtesy of Newspapers.com |
Around 1938-39, a member of Boston University’s Board of Trustees heard Helen Salem sing at church and
consequently offered her a scholarship to enter BU’s College of Music; Helen excelled and sang at a host of
University and community events. In 1944, she participated in a candle lighting ceremony at Morgan Memorial
Church of All Nations along with three other young women. The ceremony was meant to honor members of the
church and Goodwill Industries workers. On March 28, 1946, Helen performed as one of two sopranos in one of her
first college recitals. Approximately one month later, BU’s College of Music hosted its first three-day Bach Festival.
It included the University’s Orchestra and Chorus, the Girls Glee Club, the Brass Choir, and the Seminary Singers.
Nine vocal soloists received top billing and Helen Salem was one of only two sopranos. When the Seminary Singers
toured across the country in 1946, Helen traveled with the choir, the first woman to earn this distinction. The Women’s
Auxiliary Council to Morgan Memorial guest day and nursery golden jubilee problem selected Helen to sing at their
celebration and her brother-in-law appeared as guest speaker on 11 April 1947. Another of Helen’s singing
opportunities came after BU students worked with Armenian composer Alan Hovhaness for a performance in Jordan
Hall in November 1947. Helen Salem prepared to sing the especially composed cantata “Avak the Healer” but fell
ill and Hovhannes substituted the cantata with “Nerses Shnorhali.” When the Boston University Women’s Council
held charity events, including one in April 1948, Helen sang a vocal selection. In addition to all this, Helen regularly
soloed at the Church of All Nations in Boston from 1946 well into the 1950s.
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| Helen Salem, Margaret Simon, Ruth Capen, and Pei-Chang Liu lit candles at Morgan Memorial Church of All Nations to honor those who served in World War II and were part of the Goodwill Industries family of workers or a part of the church's congregation. 21 February 1944 Boston Globe. Courtesy of Newspapers.com |
Helen Salem gained significant academic and musical recognition during her first and second years at BU, her personal life changed dramatically, also, when she wed Robert R. Helms in 1946. Helms was a World War II veteran, born in Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1923 , who served in the US Army from 1943 to 1946. Helms was the youngest son of Goodwill Industries founder, Rev. Edgar J. Helms. The following year the couple had Robert R. Helms, Jr. in Boston. Helen continued her singing as Helen Salem Helms throughout 1947 when she appeared with the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, finally performing “Avak the Healer” and at the Gardner Museum in November 1948 along with John Atwater, on piano and she became one of the first two women to sing solos with the Boston University Seminary Singers. A smaller trio of soloists plucked from the Seminary Singers, including Helen, Nancy Marsh, and African American student Curtis Holland V, toured the United States in early 1950. They visited mostly churches in Maryville and Chattanooga, Tennessee, Springfield, Massachusetts, Staunton, Virginia, and St. Petersburg and Brandenton, Florida. She graduated from BU in 1950. After graduation, Helen resumed her time performing for women’ s civic groups. A host of organizations booked her for educational, charitable, and social events in the early 1950s; some of these hosts included the Braintree Philergians, the Greenfield Women’s Club, the Ladies’ Physiological Institute, the Boston City Federation of Organizations, the Presidents’ Club of Boston, the Roslindale Women’s Club, Cliftondale Women’s Club, and the Women’s Service Club, Inc.
Helen loved singing but could not sustain a career as a musician or singer alone. In 1950, both she and Robert worked for a Morgan Memorial Goodwill Industries settlement home - where he toiled as the lead house manager. Helen worked as a supervisor of the girl’s dormitory. Soon her marriage to Robert fell apart and she met and married immigrant, famed author-turned lecturer Salom Rizk. According to Salom Rizk, he and Helen Salem first met around 1951 when, "she and I were both featured on the same program of the Massachusetts State Federation of Women's Clubs Convention near Boston. I came just in time to give my address and when I entered the hall I heard a thunderous ovation. I thought maybe they had Liberace on the program, for who else could make 5000 Women's Club members, sober and sedate New Englanders, forget their age and clap like bobby soxers. I soon learned it was for a slender, dark haired, charming young lady with a divine voice and incomparable personal magnetism that they were giving this unrestrained response, and her name was Helen Salem of my own nationality." After appearing on several other programs throughout New England, the two grew closer. Salom and Helen wed on 8 June 1953 in Hampton, New Hampshire. Of course, Salom Rizk was best known for his popular, pro-assimilationist, 1943 autobiography, Syrian Yankee. In it, Rizk extolled the virtues of the American Dream, especially compared to life in Lebanon/Syria and the Middle East. His book became so popular that he toured the United States under the sponsorship of Reader’s Digest. Its reception among Arab Americans was, at best, mixed. Some found Syrian Yankee sympathetic to their points of view and experiences while others claimed the book glorified the United States "at the expense of Syria." Nonetheless, Helen, who worked as a bank teller and clerk, sometimes accompanied Salom Rizk on speaking engagements, opening the program with a song or two. Salom and Helen remained married for six or seven years and the two divorced. Each married again, Salom to Silvi Anagnos in 1960 and Helen to F. Randolph Philbrook in 1980.
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| Copy of Salom Rizk's Syrian Yankee (1943). Marriage certificate for Helen Salem and Salem Rizk. Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux collection and Ancestry.com |
The latter part of the 1950s Helen kept up her schedule of singing engagements for community and cultural
organizations, churches, and women’s groups. The New Hampshire & Vermont Library Associations asked Salom
and Helen to close their conference with a joint session on 16 September 1955. The Brighthelmstone Club program
featured Helen Rizk with Ella Frances Jones on accompaniment in November 1955. There were also performances
for the Morgan Memorial Women’s Auxiliary, the Swampscott Women’s Club, the New England Conference of the
Massachusetts State Federation of Women’s Clubs, and the Brookline Women’s Club. Most of these remained
independent of her husband at the time, Salom Rizk, but other events, Helen sang and Salom lectured on the
same program. Over the course of several years, roughly between December 1957 and Easter Sunday 1960,
Christmas and Easter service at Boston’s oldest church, First Parish Church in Dorchester, usually included a
quartet of soloists including tenor Edward Munro and soprano Helen Salem Rizk. For Christmas Day 1960, Helen
sang “Cantique de Noel” along with Rupel Perkins at First Congregational Church in Nashua, New Hampshire. A
month prior, she had also been the featured soloist at the Nashua Elk’s Lodge annual memorial services.
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| Ads 18 December 1959 & 15 April 1960, The Boston Globe, Courtesy of Newspapers.com |
Helen Salem Rizk Philbrook, "I Walked Today Where Jesus Walked" https://youtu.be/jnDShr-QLAM
In 1960 and 1961, a few correspondences with the Caravan newspaper’s editor George S. Debs reveals that Helen Salem Rizk remained interested in Syrian Lebanese culture and politics although the opportunities to immerse herself in Arab American culture and communities in Boston may not have been as frequent as they were for her growing up. In her social and professional circles, she was a steadfast ambassador of Arab and Arab American culture and Middle Eastern politics. At times, Helen shared article clippings from the Caravan with friends and associates who wanted to understand more about Arab, Arab American, or Middle Eastern politics and culture. Soon she became a regular subscriber to the Caravan, and Debs noted Helen was the wife of Salom Rizk and a recognized singer who had performed with the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and the Gardner Museum. Debs reprinted complimentary comments from various newspaper reviews of Rizk’s past performances:
“Mrs. Rizk has a beautiful vocal organ, power, voice placement, perfect breath control.” - San Jose, California
“Sang with fine and contagious sincerity at Carnegie Hall, in the first performance of ‘AVAK’.” - New York Times.
“Outstanding in the field of music. A voice of lovely quality and a polished style. Her voice was as clear as a bell
and they gave her a great ovation.” - Grand Rapids, Michigan.
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| Promotional Abridged copy of The Syrian Yankee. Courtesy of Richard Breaux Collection. |
Those outside the Boston metropolitan area or those who did not know her from her years for the Boston University
Seminary Singers likely learned of Helen during this stretch of time. Nashua Congregational Church featured Helen
Rizk at least one Sunday a month from January thru April of 1961. Helen’s interest in the history of Christian hymns
piqued in the early 1960s. She began researching the author and origins of popular Christian song and in 1964, her
Stories of Christian Hymns was published by Whittemore Associates with illustrations by William Duncan. Her
monograph has seen three printings in 1964, 1968, and 1986, and received reviews in newspapers from Boston,
Massachusetts to Hammond, Louisiana. The main text consists of paragraph-long synopses of 180 Christian songs.
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| First edition of Helen Salom Rizk's Stories of Christian Hymns (1964). Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux collection. |
Season tickets and regular donations to the Boston Symphony Orchestra kept Helen Rizk connected to Boston’s music
scene. She continued to sing both solos and in the choir at First Parish Church in Dorchester, although it was at the
Boston Symphony where she met her third husband. Boston University and its students remain of the greatest
importance to Rizk as she aged and she even married a fellow BU alumnus - Dr. Frank Randolf Philbrook. Ironically,
by the 1980s, Helen became vice president of BU’s Women’s Council, a group for which she performed in the 1940s
and 1950s, dedicated to providing aid to graduate students who lived at Fisk House, a cooperative residence for women
graduate students attending BU. She met Dr. Frank Randolf Philbrook in the 1970s and discovered their mutual love
of music, and she and Dr. Philbrook wed in the early 1980s. Helen dedicated her life to raising funds for medicine
and the performing arts - especially music. Her husband, Randolf, a graduate of the BU School of Medicine, a
nationally-known public health physician, served as a Navy aviation medical examiner in World War II, he later
worked at the Pentagon, and established a public health clinic specializing in providing immunizations. When he
suffered a stroke in 1986, Helen bought him a computer that allowed him to compose music since his ability to
continue playing the organ, flute, and carillon bells deteriorated. Helen helped care for Randolf until his passing in
1998. She then immersed herself in fundraising, philanthropy, volunteerism, and music, as she continued her life-long
commitment to singing at First Parish Church in Dorchester. Two of the last fundraising campaigns she involved
herself in included gifts for Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, BU Medical Center, and a $10,000 annuity to support
the BU School of the Arts.
For those interested in recorded audio of Helen's second husband, Salom Rizk, speaking. The Dwight D. Eisenhower
Presidential library has a copy of a May 1971 Biglerville High School (Pennsylvania) commencement address
given by Salom Rizk approximately two years before his passing in 1973. Salom Rizk married four times - he was
once a widower and three times divorced. Helen was his third wife.
Helen Salem Philbrook passed away on the morning of 11 May 2006. She was 79 years old and was survived by two
sisters and a son, who graduated from Boston State College, now UMass-Boston.
Special Thanks to Bob & Lynette.
Richard M. Breaux
© Midwest Mahjar
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