ABOUT MARK & HELENA
About Greathouse of Music
Mark Greathouse's Biography
I have played music ever since my father introduced me to the accordion at age five. I won several awards for my accordion performances in Oregon before going to Europe during my college years to study German, where in the late 1960s I met my future wife, Helena. We were both foreign students at the University of Hamburg in Germany. The attraction was mutual, and when Helena discovered I could learn anything she could sing, I added my unique accompaniment to her music. As students in Germany, we performed several months together in an international folklore cafe in Hamburg. In 1970 we were married in the Historic Prague Old Town Hall, and later that year, we came to America, where we have lived ever since. We frequently travel back to Europe to visit family and friends and perform our music.
My professional career was first spent teaching German and Russian for several years. I later worked for the Federal Government, Bonneville Power Administration (an agency of the Dept. of Energy), from which I retired.
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I enjoy playing Czech, German, Russian, and American folk songs. My repertoire includes music from several European countries, especially Spain and Italy. I also play traditional American songs and musical standards, and I especially enjoy classical and popular solos arranged for the accordion.
Music composition on the piano has always been a strong interest for me, but only in recent years after I retired did I begin to compose many piano pieces. I began writing my first compositions in 2008 and continue to compose for the piano. We have now published two dance books, Dancing for Fun, Book 1 and Book 2, which consist of group dances for all ages. These dance melodies were some of my first compositions. Later some of my compositions were recorded on several CDs played by well-known Czech pianist Daniel Wiesner. I really enjoy creating new melodies.
In 2001 Helena and I formed a duo, the Greathouse of Music, and returned to an active musical career with her. We have performed in many places both in the US and overseas. We now have our own original variety shows incorporating some of my songs, based on our early lives together in Germany and the US. We have been performing these shows around the US.
Music composition on the piano has always been a strong interest for me, but only in recent years after I retired did I begin to compose many piano pieces. I began writing my first compositions in 2008 and continue to compose for the piano. We have now published two dance books, Dancing for Fun, Book 1 and Book 2, which consist of group dances for all ages. These dance melodies were some of my first compositions. Later some of my compositions were recorded on several CDs played by well-known Czech pianist Daniel Wiesner. I really enjoy creating new melodies.
In 2001 Helena and I formed a duo, the Greathouse of Music, and returned to an active musical career with her. We have performed in many places both in the US and overseas. We now have our own original variety shows incorporating some of my songs, based on our early lives together in Germany and the US. We have been performing these shows around the US.
Helena Greathouse’s Biography
.jpg "Helena Greathouse")
From age seven throughout my childhood, I sang on the Czechoslovak National Radio and performed in musicals in principal and leading roles on both the Czechoslovak National TV and live theater in my native Czechoslovakia. My dance teacher was a direct pupil of Isadora Duncan. Later, I studied voice under professors of the Prague Conservatory of Music and continue to do so now whenever I am in Prague. I also study with a professional voice instructor when in the United States.
In my teenage years, I turned to competitive sports, competing in rhythmic gymnastics for 12 years in Europe on the advanced level. That led to pursuing an international judging career later in my life (including three World Championships, Pan Am, Goodwill Games, and two Olympics). During my competitive years in sports I continued to sing as a soloist with a folklore group.
In my teenage years, I turned to competitive sports, competing in rhythmic gymnastics for 12 years in Europe on the advanced level. That led to pursuing an international judging career later in my life (including three World Championships, Pan Am, Goodwill Games, and two Olympics). During my competitive years in sports I continued to sing as a soloist with a folklore group.
In my adult life, after receiving a Master's of Science degree in Statistics/Economics from the University of Prague, School of Economics, I had a “normal” job – first as a statistician with the State of Oregon, later as a mathematician with Bonneville Power Administration (a Federal Agency). Then both my husband Mark and I took early retirement when it was offered and decided to do what we were doing as children – focusing on the arts.
After judging internationally for the US for 29 years, I brought my dance experience from rhythmic gymnastics to the arts, performing again on stage and in films and forming a duo, the Greathouse of Music, with my husband, Mark. In 2010 we made it to the Judges' Round of America's Got Talent (as one of the 400 acts which advanced from the 70,000 initial entries nationwide).
Since 2005 I sang, acted, and danced in performances with various Portland, OR, theaters. We, as a duo, also appeared repeatedly as guest performers on several variety shows (Miz Kitty's Parlour Vaudeville Novelty Show, ScratchPDX, Performance Works NorthWest, and Shadow Vaudeville Variety Show). In 2008 we represented the modern dance company tEEth in the Ten Tiny Dances event.
Since 2014, we have developed three of our own 1-hour shows (see Current Shows)
Since 2005 I sang, acted, and danced in performances with various Portland, OR, theaters. We, as a duo, also appeared repeatedly as guest performers on several variety shows (Miz Kitty's Parlour Vaudeville Novelty Show, ScratchPDX, Performance Works NorthWest, and Shadow Vaudeville Variety Show). In 2008 we represented the modern dance company tEEth in the Ten Tiny Dances event.
Since 2014, we have developed three of our own 1-hour shows (see Current Shows)
Couple creates Great House of Music
Helena and Mark Greathouse are a powerhouse in the metro music sceneBy Barbara ShermanThe Regal Courier, Dec 28, 2010
ALL IN A DAY'S WORK — Mark and Helena have a piano in their Summerfield home that Mark uses to create his original compositions.
Together, Helena and Mark are a total package: Mark is a composer who plays the piano and accordion, and Helena is a triple threat as a singer, actress, and dancer in addition to formerly competing in rhythmic gymnastics and serving as an international judge. Helena was born in Czechoslovakia, Mark is from Portland, and they met in Europe as college students. Helena grew up in the beautiful city of Prague, noting that both her father and grandfather were talented musically, "so I sort of inherited the singing from my father's side," she said.
Helena's mother was a dancer and competitive athlete in track and field. "She was preparing to compete in the sprint and high jump in the 1940 Olympics, which never happened (because of World War II)," Helena said.
When Helena was in the second grade, she started performing with the Czechoslovak National Radio Children's Ensemble, and in the fourth grade, she became a member of a dance group that performed periodically on the Czechoslovak National Television.
"My dance teacher needed someone who could sing and dance for television musicals, so I did that and stage shows from the fourth through the eighth grade," Helena said. "The shows were all for children, and I got paid for the TV as well as for the radio performances."
In the sixth grade, Helena started artistic gymnastics on bars and balance beams, "but I discovered I was scared to do it and switched to rhythmic gymnastics," she said.
Just as war prevented Helena's mother from participating in the 1940 Olympics, the Cold War had an impact on Helena's life.
In June 1968, when finishing her fourth year of university studies, Helena went to Hamburg in what was then West Germany as an exchange student with a group of 10 economics students and two professors. "We were there for ten days, and I lived with the family of an associate professor," she said. "Since I knew German well, I was the spokesperson for the group."
In August, the Soviet army came with tanks and invaded Czechoslovakia. "The professor from Hamburg remembered me and offered me a scholarship," Helena said. "Because Czechoslovakia did not have diplomatic relations with West Germany, I couldn't get a West German visa quickly enough to start the fall semester."
She got a transit visa for West Germany that allowed her to stay for two days before supposedly going on to Switzerland, and once in Hamburg, the professor, and his wife signed her up immediately at the university, and only then did she go to the West German police to get her long-term visa so she could stay.
While in Hamburg, Helena met Mark, who was a foreign exchange student originally from Portland majoring in German. He had earned a master's degree from Stanford and was enrolled in a Ph.D. program at the University of California-Berkeley when he took a year off to study in Germany.
"We met on a cheap bus trip for students to go to a museum to see mummies," Helena said. "This was the fall of 1968, and I wanted to know about the election in the U.S., so I went around the bus asking if anyone was from the U.S. Mark was one of four U.S. students on the bus."
Helena and Mark learned they had music in common - Mark started playing the accordion at age 5, about the same age Helena started signing.
"I got a singing engagement in Hamburg at an international café where only foreigners could perform, and I needed an accompanist," she said. "Mark rented an accordion, and we performed twice a week. I was singing Czech and Slovak folk songs. Mark was a fast learner - at our rehearsals, I would just hum the melody, and he got it.
"During our programs, I would explain in German about the songs, and no one knew he was American. He never said a word, and when we finished performing there in July 1969, the MC said, 'We want to thank our Czech friends.'"
There were cheap flights to the U.S. for students, and Helena went with Mark for the rest of the summer. She got sponsors and was able to obtain a U.S. visa. Helena and Mark bought Greyhound tickets available for purchase only in Europe that allowed them to travel all over the U.S.
Helena's mother was a dancer and competitive athlete in track and field. "She was preparing to compete in the sprint and high jump in the 1940 Olympics, which never happened (because of World War II)," Helena said.
When Helena was in the second grade, she started performing with the Czechoslovak National Radio Children's Ensemble, and in the fourth grade, she became a member of a dance group that performed periodically on the Czechoslovak National Television.
"My dance teacher needed someone who could sing and dance for television musicals, so I did that and stage shows from the fourth through the eighth grade," Helena said. "The shows were all for children, and I got paid for the TV as well as for the radio performances."
In the sixth grade, Helena started artistic gymnastics on bars and balance beams, "but I discovered I was scared to do it and switched to rhythmic gymnastics," she said.
Just as war prevented Helena's mother from participating in the 1940 Olympics, the Cold War had an impact on Helena's life.
In June 1968, when finishing her fourth year of university studies, Helena went to Hamburg in what was then West Germany as an exchange student with a group of 10 economics students and two professors. "We were there for ten days, and I lived with the family of an associate professor," she said. "Since I knew German well, I was the spokesperson for the group."
In August, the Soviet army came with tanks and invaded Czechoslovakia. "The professor from Hamburg remembered me and offered me a scholarship," Helena said. "Because Czechoslovakia did not have diplomatic relations with West Germany, I couldn't get a West German visa quickly enough to start the fall semester."
She got a transit visa for West Germany that allowed her to stay for two days before supposedly going on to Switzerland, and once in Hamburg, the professor, and his wife signed her up immediately at the university, and only then did she go to the West German police to get her long-term visa so she could stay.
While in Hamburg, Helena met Mark, who was a foreign exchange student originally from Portland majoring in German. He had earned a master's degree from Stanford and was enrolled in a Ph.D. program at the University of California-Berkeley when he took a year off to study in Germany.
"We met on a cheap bus trip for students to go to a museum to see mummies," Helena said. "This was the fall of 1968, and I wanted to know about the election in the U.S., so I went around the bus asking if anyone was from the U.S. Mark was one of four U.S. students on the bus."
Helena and Mark learned they had music in common - Mark started playing the accordion at age 5, about the same age Helena started signing.
"I got a singing engagement in Hamburg at an international café where only foreigners could perform, and I needed an accompanist," she said. "Mark rented an accordion, and we performed twice a week. I was singing Czech and Slovak folk songs. Mark was a fast learner - at our rehearsals, I would just hum the melody, and he got it.
"During our programs, I would explain in German about the songs, and no one knew he was American. He never said a word, and when we finished performing there in July 1969, the MC said, 'We want to thank our Czech friends.'"
There were cheap flights to the U.S. for students, and Helena went with Mark for the rest of the summer. She got sponsors and was able to obtain a U.S. visa. Helena and Mark bought Greyhound tickets available for purchase only in Europe that allowed them to travel all over the U.S.
They met Mark's parents in Berkeley, and when the summer was over, Helena took a bus back to New York and flew home, where she had one more year of school to get her master's degree. "We decided we would get married in a year, and I wanted the wedding to be at the Old Town Hall in Prague, but you had to sign up eight months in advance to get the space," Helena said. "Also, in order to get married, Mark had to get a certificate saying he was not married. Technically he would need one from every US state since there is no central registration of marriages in the U.S. But he went to the Oakland City Hall, and after explaining the situation, he got a certificate that worked."
Mark came to Prague in June 1970, and they were married that month. They went on a honeymoon around Czechoslovakia, and in September, Mark returned to Berkeley to continue as a teaching assistant at the university. Helena finished school in Prague, receiving her master's degree in economics and statistics, and then joined Mark in the U.S. When Helena couldn't get a job using her economics degrees, she found work teaching gymnastics in Oakland and other places in the Bay Area. They moved to the Portland area in 1974, where Helena taught rhythmic gymnastics, "which was totally new in the U.S."
She added, "I was one of the founding mothers of rhythmic gymnastics in the U.S." Helena ultimately worked for Bonneville Power Administration for 20 years as a mathematician, "but I always did gymnastics judging on the side," she said. Helena served as an international rhythmic gymnastics judge between 1974 and 2003, including three World Championships, Pan Am, Good Will Games, and two Olympics. Meanwhile, Mark also got a job at Bonneville Power Administration, where he initially worked with the computer information center (help desk) and later with computer operations, where he served as liaison and overseer between the computer contractors and BPA.
During that time, Mark started composing music and took an early retirement in 1999, so he could spend more time composing and taking piano lessons. His original instrument was the accordion, and he wanted to compose music for the piano. Helena took an early retirement in 2001 and started taking singing lessons again.
In 2003, the couple started performing together and formed the Great House of Music to provide various forms of entertainment, including vocal and instrumental ethnic music with dance; accordion solos; oldies, familiar melodies and music from musicals; classical and modern vocals with choreography; and vaudeville.
Helena has performed in numerous local productions at such venues at Imago Theatre, Beaverton Civic Theatre, Clackamas County Theatre, Opera Theatre Oregon, and MCO (Music, Comedy, Opera) Productions. "And we do private parties," Helena said.
Mark has now composed more than 40 pieces, according to Helena. "He has a composition teacher, who thought Mark's compositions would be suitable for group dances," Helena said. A Portland modern dance choreographer choreographed 12 dances to go with Mark's melodic piano compositions for their first book, and Helena's niece, a former soloist with the State Opera House who now teaches dance in Prague, choreographed the dances for the second book to go with more of Mark's compositions.
In 2010 Mark and Helena published the first book of "Dancing for Fun," which has a dual purpose: For piano students, there is sheet music and a CD; for dance students, there is written choreography and a DVD.
The second book, which will be published in February 2011, includes ten additional original compositions, written choreography, a CD, and a DVD.
The couple also has produced five CDs. The latest two CDs are "Across the Board," which includes a wide range of vocal selections and Mark's own piano compositions, and "Czech & Slovak Folk Music," which is a collection of folk songs, including four Christmas carols.
In 2010 Mark and Helena were in the West Coast judges' round of "America's Got Talent," which was held in Portland. They were one of 400 acts that advanced from the 70,000 initial entries nationwide.
Mark's mother, Kathryn Greathouse, who used to live in Summerfield, died in 2001, and Mark and Helena moved into the house in 2002.
For more information on Mark and Helena, their performances, and their books and CDs, visit www.greathouseofmusic.com.
Copyright 2011 Pamplin Media Group, 6605 S.E. Lake Road, Portland, OR 97222 • 503-226-6397
Mark came to Prague in June 1970, and they were married that month. They went on a honeymoon around Czechoslovakia, and in September, Mark returned to Berkeley to continue as a teaching assistant at the university. Helena finished school in Prague, receiving her master's degree in economics and statistics, and then joined Mark in the U.S. When Helena couldn't get a job using her economics degrees, she found work teaching gymnastics in Oakland and other places in the Bay Area. They moved to the Portland area in 1974, where Helena taught rhythmic gymnastics, "which was totally new in the U.S."
She added, "I was one of the founding mothers of rhythmic gymnastics in the U.S." Helena ultimately worked for Bonneville Power Administration for 20 years as a mathematician, "but I always did gymnastics judging on the side," she said. Helena served as an international rhythmic gymnastics judge between 1974 and 2003, including three World Championships, Pan Am, Good Will Games, and two Olympics. Meanwhile, Mark also got a job at Bonneville Power Administration, where he initially worked with the computer information center (help desk) and later with computer operations, where he served as liaison and overseer between the computer contractors and BPA.
During that time, Mark started composing music and took an early retirement in 1999, so he could spend more time composing and taking piano lessons. His original instrument was the accordion, and he wanted to compose music for the piano. Helena took an early retirement in 2001 and started taking singing lessons again.
In 2003, the couple started performing together and formed the Great House of Music to provide various forms of entertainment, including vocal and instrumental ethnic music with dance; accordion solos; oldies, familiar melodies and music from musicals; classical and modern vocals with choreography; and vaudeville.
Helena has performed in numerous local productions at such venues at Imago Theatre, Beaverton Civic Theatre, Clackamas County Theatre, Opera Theatre Oregon, and MCO (Music, Comedy, Opera) Productions. "And we do private parties," Helena said.
Mark has now composed more than 40 pieces, according to Helena. "He has a composition teacher, who thought Mark's compositions would be suitable for group dances," Helena said. A Portland modern dance choreographer choreographed 12 dances to go with Mark's melodic piano compositions for their first book, and Helena's niece, a former soloist with the State Opera House who now teaches dance in Prague, choreographed the dances for the second book to go with more of Mark's compositions.
In 2010 Mark and Helena published the first book of "Dancing for Fun," which has a dual purpose: For piano students, there is sheet music and a CD; for dance students, there is written choreography and a DVD.
The second book, which will be published in February 2011, includes ten additional original compositions, written choreography, a CD, and a DVD.
The couple also has produced five CDs. The latest two CDs are "Across the Board," which includes a wide range of vocal selections and Mark's own piano compositions, and "Czech & Slovak Folk Music," which is a collection of folk songs, including four Christmas carols.
In 2010 Mark and Helena were in the West Coast judges' round of "America's Got Talent," which was held in Portland. They were one of 400 acts that advanced from the 70,000 initial entries nationwide.
Mark's mother, Kathryn Greathouse, who used to live in Summerfield, died in 2001, and Mark and Helena moved into the house in 2002.
For more information on Mark and Helena, their performances, and their books and CDs, visit www.greathouseofmusic.com.
Copyright 2011 Pamplin Media Group, 6605 S.E. Lake Road, Portland, OR 97222 • 503-226-6397