Rick Helzer performed in a number of creative music groups during his residency
in Los Angeles, from 1981-1986. Most notably he is a founding member of
the jazz trio Big World, a group that performed at the 1989 International
Association of Jazz Educators conference in San Diego. The group toured
Germany in 1990 and the Pacific northwest in 1992. Big World has two critically
acclaimed albums in current release, Devotion on the Cexton label,
and Angels on the 9 Winds label.
Rick has been very active in the local San Diego jazz community since 1990,
performing with four different groups. He was also a featured soloist and
arranger on albums by jazz vocalists Joy Eden Harris-Angel Town,
Ellen Johnson-Too Good To Title, and Cathy Segal Garcia-Point
of View. Upcoming projects include albums with saxophonist Steve Feirabend's
quartet, bassist and composer Chris Conner's sextet, and a second album
with jazz vocalist Ellen Johnson.
In 1996, Rick began recording an album that features his original compositions.
Guest soloists include bassist/composer David Friesen and flutist/composer
James Newton. The settings for the compositions include everything from
solo pieces to music written for nine players.
Since 1986 Rick has served as the Associate Director of Jazz Studies program
at San Diego State University. He also taught jazz piano privately, and
was an adjunct faculty member at Rancho Santiago and Fullerton Colleges.
Since his arrival at SDSU, Rick authored and continues to update the curriculum
for the jazz theory and arranging courses that make up the academic core
of the Bachelor of Music degree in jazz performance. As well, he developed
a curriculum for the graduate level jazz theory seminar that is part of
the academic core for the Master of Music degree in jazz performance. He
has also developed a growing body of transcriptions and arrangements for
the jazz combo program that includes repertoire from major jazz composers,
regional composers, and original music composed by some of the program's
outstanding students.
RECENT COMMISSIONS
This year, Rick was commissioned to write an original composition for the
SDSU Jazz Ensemble that will be featured on the upcoming School of Music
and Dance CD celebrating San Diego State University's Centennial. He was
also commissioned to write a composition based on themes of jazz composer
and pianist Theolonious Monk for colleagues Marian Liebowitz and Karen Follingstad
that will be performed on an international tour under the auspices of the
U.S. Information Agency and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing
Arts 1997 Artistic Ambassador Program.
