Simonett Helena HSLU M

Prof. Dr. Helena Simonett Helena Simonett

Lecturer

Simonett Helena HSLU M

Lucerne School of Music

Room 3.OG
Arsenalstrasse 28a
6010 Kriens


CC Music Education Research

Lecturer

+41 41 249 26 84

Show email

Biography

Helena Simonett holds a master’s degree (Lic. Phil. I) from the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She was a faculty member at Vanderbilt University (Nashville, Tennessee) where she also served as associate director of the Center for Latin American Studies. Simonett conducted extensive research on Mexican popular music and its transnational diffusion, as well as on indigenous ceremonial music. She joined Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts as a Senior Research Associate in 2017.

Dr. Simonett is a member of the Swiss Society for Ethnomusicology (CH-EM), the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM), the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM), the International Association for the Study of Popular Music—América Latina (IASPM-AL), and the British Forum for Ethnomusicology (BFE).

Main research interests:

  • Transnational music and culture
  • Latin American music
  • Mexican indigenous musical life
  • Music and identity
  • Music and perception
  • Music and emotion
  • Applied ethnomusicology
  • Musical anthropology

Projects

Research projects

  • ITC - Music as Empowerment: Engaging Young Refugees in Musicking as a Way of Social Immersion
  • Seeking Birdscapes
  • Brain Food/Soul Food – Grundlagen
  • Mobile Identities: The Impact of Forced Mobility on Individuals’ Musicking (A Case Study)
  • Musik und Identitätsbildung bei minderjährigen Asylsuchenden und Flüchtlingen
  • Animal Sounds

Publications and presentations

Publications and presentations - Artistic work/music

  • Mayas, Magdalena (Autor/in) & Simonett, Helena (Autor/in) (2022). Sounds beyond borders (Life-soundcollage) Lucerne:

Publications and presentations - Artistic, art-related work/art and design

  • Jäggi, Patricia; Kirschstein, Natalie; Lewy, Matthias; Lussi, Martina; Nigg, Marie-Louise & Simonett, Helena (2022). Birdscapes [Ausstellung im Natur-Museum Luzern, 16.09 – 3.11.2022]. Lucerne. https://www.hslu.ch/de-ch/hochschule-luzern/forschung/ausgewaehlte-projekte/birdscapes/
  • Esquer López, Bernardo & Simonett, Helena (2012). Ca’anáriam: Hobre que no hizo fuego [Buch]. Culiacán, Mexico.

Publications and presentations - Book/catalogue

  • Simonett, Helena & León, Javier F. (Hrsg.). (2016). A Latin American Music Reader: Views from the South. Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield: University of Illinois Press.
  • Simonett, Helena & Mendívil, Julio (Hrsg.). (2016). ‘Indigenous Musical Practices and Politics in Latin America.’ TRANS-Revista Transcultural de Música/Transcultural Music Review, vol. 20. (Journal of the SIBE-Society for Ethnomusicology). Spain: SIBE-Society for Ethnomusicology.
  • Simonett, Helena (Hrsg.). (2012). The Accordion in the Americas: Klezmer, Polka, Tango, Zydeco, and More! Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield: University of Illinois Press.
  • Simonett, Helena (Hrsg.). (2009). ‘Music for Being.’ The World of Music, vol. 52, no. 1. The University of Sheffield: Journal of the Ethnomusicology Programme.
  • Simonett, Helena (2004). En Sinaloa nací: Historia de la música de banda. Mazatlán, Mexico: Asociación de Gestores del Patrimonio Histórico y Cultural de Mazatlán..
  • Simonett, Helena (2001). Banda: Mexican Musical Life across Borders. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press..

Publications and presentations - Article, review; peer reviewed

  • Lewy, Matthias & Simonett, Helena (2022). Das Dilemma der Modernen: Mensch-Vogel-Beziehung akustisch. Tierstudien, 21, 133-143.
  • Simonett, Helena (2022). Tumbando muros–Chanting down the walls: Musik, Migrationspolitik, Menschenwürde. Schweizer Jahrbuch für Musikwissenschaft – Neue Folge, 39, 73-84.
  • Simonett, Helena (2021). Stilles Sterben: Das Verstummen traditioneller indigener Klangpraktiken in Nordwest-Mexiko. Tierstudien, (20), 100-109.
  • Simonett, Helena (2021). La conquista del acordeón: del Viejo Mundo a nuevos horizontes. Encartes, 4(8), 102-129. doi: 10.29340/en.v4n8.177
  • Simonett, Helena (2019). Miteinander Musizieren: Über den Nutzen von Musikprojekten für angehende Musikpädagog*innen und junge Asylsuchende. Die Musikforschung, 4, 336-346.
  • Simonett, Helena (2016). Yoreme Cocoon Leg Rattles: An Eco-organological Perspective. TRANS-Revista Transcultural de Música/Transcultural Music Review, vol. 20, (20), 1-33.
  • Simonett, Helena & Burgos Dávila, César J. (2015). Mexican Pointy Boots and the Tribal Scene: Global Appropriations of Local Cultural Practices in the Virtual Age. Transatlantica: Revue d'Études Américaines, 2015(1), 1-24. doi: https://doi.org/10.4000/transatlantica.7596
  • Simonett, Helena (2014). Envisioned, Ensounded, Enacted: Sacred Ecology and Indigenous Musical Experience in Yoreme Ceremonies of Northwest Mexico. Ethnomusicology, (58), 110-132.
  • Simonett, Helena (2011). Giving Voice to the “Dignified Man”: Reflections on Global Popular Music. Popular Music, 30(2), 227-244.
  • Simonett, Helena (2009). Narrativity and Selfhood in Mayo-Yoreme Mortuary Rituals. The world of music (new series), 51(2), 45-64.
  • Simonett, Helena (2007). Los gallos sinaloenses en la música popular. Arenas: Revista Sinaloense de Ciencias Sociales, 12(2), 84-98.
  • Simonett, Helena (2006). Los gallos valientes: Examining Violence in Popular Mexican Music. TRANS-Revista Transcultural de Música/Transcultural Music Review, 10, on-line.
  • Simonett, Helena (2006). Los gallos valientes: Examining Violence in Popular Mexican Music. TRANS-Revista Transcultural de Música/Transcultural Music Review, 10, on-line.
  • Simonett, Helena (2004). Subcultura musical: El narcocorrido comerical y el narcocorrido por encargo. Caravelle (Cahiers du Monde Hispanique et Luso-Bresilien), 82, 179-193.
  • Simonett, Helena (2001). Narcocorridos: An Emerging Micromusic of Nuevo L.A. Ethnomusicology, 45(2), 315-337.
  • Simonett, Helena (2000). Popular Music and the Politics of Identity: The Empowering Sound of Technobanda. Popular Music and Society, 24(2), 1-23.

Publications and presentations - Article, review; not peer reviewed

  • Simonett, Helena (2022). Lieder, Geister und Tabus: Zum soziokulturellen Wandel der Musiktradition bei den Tao in Taiwan (by Wei-Ya Lin, 2021). The world of music (new series), 2022, vol. 11/1, 164-167.
  • Simonett, Helena (2019). Sounds of Crossing: Music, Migration, and the Aural Poetics of Huapango Arribeño by Alex E. Chávez. Ethnomusicology Forum, 27(3), 118-119.
  • Simonett, Helena (2014). Cumbia! Scenes of a Migrant Latin American Music Genre (edited by Héctor Fernández L’Hoeste and Pablo Vila, 2013). Hispanic American Historical Review, 2013(94, no 2), 539-540.
  • Simonett, Helena (2012). Everyday Music Listening: Absorption, Dissociation and Trancing by Ruth Herbert (Farnham, U.K.: Ashgate, 2011). The world of music (new series), (1, no 2), 138-140.
  • Simonett, Helena (2010). A View from the South: Academic Discourse across Borders. Journal of Popular Music Studies, 22(1), 79-84.

Publications and presentations - Chapter/legal commentary/lexicon article

  • Simonett, Helena & Ahmadi, Jawed (2022). Music in and for a Mobile World: Home, Place, and Memory in the Context of Migration and Displacement. In Marc-Antoine Camp; Natalie Kirschstein; Johannes Kretz; Wei-ya Lin; Huib Schippers; Yannick Wey (Hrsg.), Performing, Engaging, Knowing , 26-29 August 2020 (S. 1-13). Lucerne, Switzerland: Performing, Engaging, Knowing: Proceedings of the 7th Study Group Meeting of the ICTM Study Group on Applied Ethnomusicology.
  • Simonett, Helena (2021). La musique comme moyen de survie. Pratiques d’écoute quotidienne des jeunes réfugiés, étude de cas en Suisse. In Laëtitia Atlani-Duault and Luis Velasco-Pufleau (Hrsg.), Lieux de mémoire sonore: Des sons pour survivre, des sons pour tuer (S. 229-254). Paris: Éditions de la Maison des sciences de l’homme.
  • Simonett, Helena; Burgos Dávila, César J. & Moreno Candil, David (2021). State Censorship and the Controversy Surrounding the Narcocorrido Genre in Mexico. In Anja Brunner; Hannes Liechti (Hrsg.), Pop–Power–Positions. Global Relations and Popular Music/Globale Beziehungen und populäre Musik (S. 129-153). Berlin: International Association for the Study of Popular Music IASPM D-A-CH.
  • Simonett, Helena (2021). Intuitive Sensory Presentiation and Recollection: A Phenomenological Interpretation of the Deer Dance. In Harris M. Berger; Friedlind Riedel; David VanderHamm (Hrsg.), The Oxford Handbook of Phenomenology of Music Cultures (S. on-line). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Simonett, Helena; Burgos Dávila, César J. & Moreno Candil, David (2021). La censura al narcocorrido en México: Análisis etnográfico de la controversia. In José Juan Olvera Gudiño (Hrsg.), Economías de las músicas norteñas (S. 49-72). Mexico City: Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social.
  • Simonett, Helena (2021). Eine Gratwanderung zwischen Feld und Labor: Reflexionen über verschiedene Wege der Wissensakquisition. In Barbara Alge (Hrsg.), Musikethnographien im 21. Jahrhundert (S. 19-44). Freiburg: Rombach Wissenschaft.
  • Simonett, Helena & Burgos Dávila, César J. (2019). “Soy gallo de Sinaloa jugado en varios palenques”: Production and Consumption of Narco-music in a Transnational World. In José A. Ramos-Kittrell (Hrsg.), Decentering the Nation: Music, Mexicanidad, and Globalization (S. 97-123). Lanham MD: Lexington Books.
  • Simonett, Helena (2015). Música vernácula del siglo XIX hasta los setenta del siglo XX. In Carlos Maciel Sánchez and Ilda Elizabeth Moreno Rojas (Hrsg.), Historia Temática de Sinaloa, vol. 5: Cultura y Arte (S. 3-32). Mexico City: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes.
  • Simonett, Helena (2015). Al compás de la banda: La tecnobanda y el pasito duranguense en el mundo globalizado. In Georgina Flores Mercado (Hrsg.), Las bandas de viento en México (S. 333-353). Mexico City: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia.
  • Simonett, Helena (2015). Of Human and Non-human Birds: Indigenous Music Making and Sentient Ecology in Northwestern Mexico. In Aaron S. Allen and Kevin Dawe (Hrsg.), Current Directions in Ecomusicology: Music, Nature, Environment (S. 99-108). New York: Routledge.
  • Simonett, Helena (2015). Sinaloa. In Sean Williams (Hrsg.), The Ethnomusicologists’ Cookbook, vol. 2 (S. 107-111). New York: Routledge.
  • Simonett, Helena (2014). Canción mexicana (canción ranchera); Norteña; Grupera; Corrido. In John Shepherd and David Horn (Hrsg.), Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World (S. 128-133). New York: Bloomsbury.
  • Simonett, Helena (2013). Banda; Corrido; Immigrant Music; Mexican Music; Norteño; Ranchera. In George Torres (Hrsg.), Encyclopedia of Latin American Popular Music (S. 28-30). Santa Barbara: Greenwood, ABC-CLIO.
  • Simonett, Helena (2013). From Village to World State: The Malleability of Sinaloan Popular Brass Bands. In Kate Brucher and Suzel Reily (Hrsg.), Brass Bands of the World: Militarism, Colonialism, and Local Music Making (S. 199-2016). Surrey, U.K.: Ashgate.
  • Simonett, Helena (2013). Immigrant Music. In George Torres (Hrsg.), Encyclopedia of Latin American Popular Music (S. 209-212). Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO Greenwood Press.
  • Simonett, Helena (2013). Banda. In Chuck Tatum (Hrsg.), Encyclopedia of Latino Culture (S. 857-863). Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO Greenwood Press.
  • Simonett, Helena (2012). Pasito Duranguense; Chalino Sánchez; Banda El Recodo; Banda; Grupo Montéz de Durango; Grupera, Onda. In Tim Sachs, et al. (Hrsg.), The Grove Dictionary of American Music, 2nd ed. (S. on-line). New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Simonett, Helena (2012). ‘La vuelta al mundo en 80 tambores’: Reflexiones sobre músicas migrantes. In Miguel Olmos Aguilera (Hrsg.), Músicas migrantes: la movilidad artística en la era global (S. 381-395). Tijuana, Mexico: Colegio de la Frontera Norte, Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa, Bonilla Artigas Editores.
  • Simonett, Helena (2012). From Old World to New Shores. In Helena Simonett (Hrsg.), The Accordion in the Americas: Klezmer, Polka, Tango, Zydeco, and More! (S. 19-38). Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield: Illinois University Press.
  • Simonett, Helena (2012). Duranguense; Quebradita and Technobanda. In John Shepherd and David Horn (Hrsg.), Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World (S. 191-192). New York: Continuum.
  • Simonett, Helena (2012). Introduction. In Helena Simonett (Hrsg.), The Accordion in the Americas: Klezmer, Polka, Tango, Zydeco, and More! (S. 1-18). Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield: Illinois University Press..
  • Simonett, Helena (2012). ‘Cantos de venado’: New Insights into Mexican Indigenous Performance and Composition Practices. In Matthias Stöckli and Arnd Adje Booth (Hrsg.), Flower World: Music Archaeology of the Americas/Mundo Florido: Arqueomusicología de las Américas, vol. 1 (S. 137-154). Berlin: Ekho Verlag.
  • Simonett, Helena (2011). Re-localized Rap and Its Representation of the Hombre Digno. In Alejandro Madrid (Hrsg.), Transnational Encounters: Music and Performance at the U.S.-Mexico Border (S. 129-148). Oxford and London: Oxford University Press.
  • Simonett, Helena (2008). Quest for the Local: Building Musical Ties between Mexico and the United States. In Ignacio Corona and Alejandro L. Madrid (Hrsg.), Postnational Musical Identities: Cultural Production, Distribution and Consumption in a Globalized Scenario (S. 119-135). Lanham MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
  • Simonett, Helena (2007). Banda, a New Sound from the Barrios of Los Angeles: Transmigration and Transcultural Production. In Ian Biddle and Vanessa Knights (Hrsg.), Music, National Identity and the Politics of Location: Between the Local and the Global (S. 81-92). Aldershot: Ashgate.

Publications and presentations - Other publication formats

  • Jäggi, Patricia; Lewy, Matthias; Lussi, Martina; Nigg, Marie-Louise & Simonett, Helena (11.09.2020). Podcast Seeking Birdscapes [Podcast]. https://soundcloud.com/hochschuleluzern/podcast-seeking-birdscapes/s-30tLAk30vHK

Publications and presentations - Presentation (conference/report/lectures)

  • Simonett, Helena & Zimmermann, Dominic (17.10.2024). To Rap or not to Rap: Reflections on (Dis)Empowering Young Afghan Refugees in Music Workshops. The Society for Ethnomusicology – 2024 Virtual Annual Meeting, Online.
  • Kammermann, Andrea; Kirschstein, Natalie; Petersen, Suse & Simonett, Helena (14.12.2023). Music as Empowerment: Rückblick und Ausblick am Durchgangszentrum Grosshof. Austauschtreffen Durchgangszentrum Grosshof, Kriens.
  • Simonett, Helena (26.11.2022). Zuhören: Musicking als Empowerment von jungen Menschen mit Migrationshintergrund. Tagung “Musik und Migration”, Pädagogische Hochschule St. Gallen, Rorschach, Switzerland.
  • Simonett, Helena (29.10.2022). Zuhören als Strategie zum Empowerment (erste Etappe des SNF Projekts "Music as Empowerment: Engaging young refugees in musicking as a way of social immersion"). Swiss Society for Ethnomusicology (CH-EM), Universität Bern.
  • Kirschstein, Natalie & Simonett, Helena (07.10.2022). Tùn resùn: Walking in the Sounding Forest. Conference Seeking Birdscapes: Musik, Ökologie und die Klangwelten der Vögel, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Lucerne, Switzerland.
  • Simonett, Helena (10.09.2022). Tumbando muros–Chanting down the walls: Music, Migration Policy, Human Dignity. Symposium Boundaries, Borderlands, and Belonging: Translocality and the Navigation of Cultural Movements, Intersections, and Conflicts, Graz, Austria.
  • Beck, Jaqueline; Büeler, Matthias; Kammermann, Andrea; Petersen, Suse; Simonett, Helena & Zimmermann, Dominic (07.07.2022). Ohren auf Reisen. Midissage und Ausstellung der Hörbeiträge «Ohren auf Reisen», Hochschule Luzern, Schweiz.
  • Simonett, Helena (01.06.2022). Mensch-Tier-Transformation jenseits von Natur und Kultur: Von der Ethnographie zur Theorie. Kolloquium zu aktuellen Fragen in der Musikforschung, Institut für Musikwissenschaft Weimar-Jena, Weimar-Jena, Deutschland.
  • Simonett, Helena (09.02.2022). Mensch-Tier-Transformationen jenseits von Natur und Kultur: Schlussfolgerungen aus einer musikethnologischen Betrachtung indigener Kosmologien. Mittwochskonferenzen Forschungszentrum Historische Geisteswissenschaften, online.
  • Simonett, Helena (27.11.2021). Hören oder sehen? – Indigene Hörkonzepte auf dem Prüfstand der westlichen Wissenschaft. Hinhören–Zuhören– Weghören ÖGMW 2021 Jahrestagung, online.
  • Simonett, Helena (09.11.2021). La transformación de los danzantes y músicos yoreme en animales durante sus ceremonias. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Fonoteca, Mexico City, online.
  • Simonett, Helena (14.10.2021). “Musik und Migration Projekte”. Blocktagewoche, Rorschach, SG, Schweiz.
  • Simonett, Helena (10.04.2021). "Lo que canta el carrizo": Contemplating the Relationship between Human and Nonhuman Birds. Panel Chair: "Sound Ecologies: Birds, Trees, and Other Sounding and Listening Agencies". Annual Conference of the British Forum for Ethnomusicology (BFE), U.K., online.
  • Simonett, Helena (31.03.2021). Sounding cocoons: Indigenous Cultural Strategies in Times of Environmental Degradation and Loss of Biodiversity. Annual Conference of the Association of Social Anthropologists (ASA), U.K., online.
  • Burgos Dávila, César J. & Simonett, Helena (16.03.2021). “Soy gallo de Sinaloa jugado en varios palenques": Production and Consumption of Narco-music in a Transnational World. Seminar at Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium.
  • Simonett, Helena & Awadi, Jawed (26.08.2020). Music in and for a Mobile World: An Example of Collaborative Artistic Research. ICTM Study Groups of Applied Ethnomusicology and Artistic Research 7th Meeting, online.
  • Simonett, Helena (11.07.2019). Mobile Identities: Alternative Definitions of National Belonging. 45th World Conference of the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM), Bangkok, Thailand.
  • Simonett, Helena (11.07.2019). Mobile Identities: Alternative Definitions of National Belonging. 45th World Conference of the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM), Bangkok, Thailand.
  • Simonett, Helena (15.05.2019). Coping Through Music. Writing Workshop “Musique, humanitaire et post-conflit,” Fondation Maison des sciences de l’homme, Paris, France.
  • Simonett, Helena (15.04.2019). Music and Identity. Workshop and panel, Symposium “Music for Change,” Zurich University of the Arts, Zurich, Switzerland.
  • Simonett, Helena (05.11.2018). Contained in a Cocoon: The Material and Non-material World of a "Musical Instrument”. Seminar at Universidà di Roma “La Sapienza”, Rom, Italy.
  • Simonett, Helena (19.10.2018). Mobile Identities: Production and Consumption of Narco-music in a Transnational World. International Association of the Study of Popular Music (IASPM D-A-CH) Pop–Power–Positions, Bern.
  • Simonett, Helena (09.07.2018). Overcoming the Silent Stage: Possibilities for Applied Ethnomusicology to Empower Unaccompanied Minor Asylum-seekers (Switzerland). 6th Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Applied Ethnomusicology, Beijing, China.
  • Simonett, Helena (25.11.2017). Musical Identities of Asylum-seeking Youth, Lucerne. Meeting of the Swiss Society for Ethnomusicology (CH-EM), Bern, Switzerland.
  • Simonett, Helena (18.08.2017). Music across Borders: Reflections on Musical Identity in a Globalized World. Transculturalism in Music, Altdorf, Switzerland.
  • Simonett, Helena (17.07.2017). Yoreme Cocoon Leg Rattles: An Eco-organological Perspective. 44th World Conference, Limerick, Ireland.
  • Simonett, Helena (20.04.2017). Yoreme Cocoon Leg Rattles: An Eco-organological Study of a Unique ‘Sound Maker'. Invited Lecture, Tennessee.

Achievements

Achievements - Commissions, memberships and external activities

  • Simonett, Helena. Co-editor. (01.07.2022). Ethnomusicology Forum (REMF).
  • Simonett, Helena. Secretary. (2018-today). Swiss Society for Ethnomusicology CH-EM.

Achievements - Other achievements

  • Baumeler, Tanja; Camp, Marc-Antoine; Koch, David & Simonett, Helena. Musikalische Vielstimmigkeit und Aneignung: Podiumsdiskussion am Festival °stimm°e°n° (Szenenwechsel 2023), mit traditioneller Musik aus Afghanistan. Mitorganisation. Hochschule Luzern Musik.