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Beggars can be choosers
Artist of melody supports medley of University fundraising efforts

By Hope Green

Helen Salem Philbrook grew up in a close-knit Arabic community in Boston's pre-condo South End. The 1930s and '40s were a time when neighbors would meet over fragrant platters of mujadera lentils in their homes instead of sipping lattés at the local coffee bar.

Philbrook's simple life became pleasantly complicated one day, however, when a BU trustee heard her sing in church and offered her a full scholarship to what was then known as BU's College of Music.

"I loved my childhood; I loved my community," says Philbrook (SFA'50), a daughter of Lebanese immigrants. "But I always felt a little guilty in thinking I had more than other people, because I had this voice and it opened many doors for me."

Helen Philbrook Photo by Kalman Zabarsky

Now Philbrook is helping BU open its doors to future generations of students -- in medicine as well as in music -- through her philanthropy and fundraising efforts. She is vice president of the BU Women's Council, which provides scholarships for graduate

students who live at Fisk House. Three years ago she established a charitable gift annuity of more than $10,000 to support the School for the Arts. And recently she pledged a gift to the BU Medical Center in memory of her husband, Randolf (MED'35), a physician and a prominent figure in public health, who died in 1998.

"He had a private practice and made house calls when nobody else was doing them," Philbrook says. "That's why I adored him: he had his heart in his medicine. When we would go out, people would come up and hug him and say, 'Oh, how wonderful to see you, Doctor,' with great love and great emotion, and you could tell he did a good service. I was grateful to have married him."

As a student, Helen traveled the country performing solos with BU's Seminary Singers and starred in the University's first Bach festival at Jordan Hall. There she met the composer Alan Hohvaness, who invited her to perform the world premiere of his cantata Avak the Healer at Carnegie Hall.

"He composed it for me, with a solo trumpet and string instruments from the New York Philharmonic," Philbrook says. "Those were exciting, wonderful years for me, the happiest years of my life." She went on to perform concerts and oratorios for women's clubs all over New England.

The Philbrooks met in the 1970s at Symphony Hall, where both had season tickets. Randolf shared Helen's passion for music: he played organ, flute, and carillon bells. When a stroke forced him to give up medicine about 15 years ago, the couple purchased an Atari computer that enabled him to arrange music.

"It changed his life," Philbrook says. "He'd be on that computer six to seven hours a day and he adapted all kinds of music for the carillon, everything from Scott Joplin to classical. They're playing his arrangements all over the world now."

Philbrook continues to make music of her own, singing at the First Parish Church in Dorchester. Until a few years ago she ran a travel agency. But volunteer work occupies much of her time these days. She once led a successful fundraising group at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, and now hopes to do the same for BUMC.

"I'm always begging for money -- not for me but for some cause -- and I'm not ashamed to do it," Philbrook says. "People are really happy to give. It makes them happy if you explain how their contribution will enhance a student's life."

8 February 2001
Boston University
Office of University Relations