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For over a decade, Helen Beedle has been giving audiences a taste of 19th century music. Based upon years of research into sheet music dating from the 1850s to the 1870s and other period sources, her performances on the piano bring back to life the music of that era. Her repertoire includes music by the flashy Louisianan Louis M. Gottschalk; African-Americans “Blind Tom” Wiggins and Francis Johnson, as well as Stephen Foster, George Root, and many of the other “stars” of the Civil War era.
A graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Helen teaches at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. She has toured across the United States and in Europe. Her music can be heard in museum exhibits and in sound tracks – notably in HBO’s miniseries Big Love. Helen Beedle’s performances powerfully remind the Civil War enthusiast that there was much great music in the 1860s far away from the battlefield, parade ground, or encampment. She takes us into the parlors and concert halls of mid-19th century America. Her recordings include When the Galop Was the Rage and 19th Century Salon and Concert Music.
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