Joan Heller's longstanding advocacy of twentieth-century and American music is reflected in her numerous recordings and performances; the latter, both here and abroad, have included the world premieres of more than forty compositions, many written specifically for her. She has given vocal master classes in the US, UK, and former USSR and served on the music faculties of Yale University, Boston University, and the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. In 1994 she was the recipient of an individual artist grant from the National Endowement for the Humanities for her solo compact disk, To the Verge (Neuma records), featuring compositions by Luciano Berio, Charles Fussell, Robert Cogan, Milton Babbitt, and Thomas Stumpf. In 1999 she was awarded a Meadows Development Grant to produce the CD which will be published with the book Walt Whitman and Musical Modernism by Garland Press, Spring 2000.