Helen Rees has conducted extensive field and archival research on ritual music, music and tourism, and musicians’ lives in southwest China and Shanghai. She is also interested in the effect on East Asian traditional musics of contemporary intangible cultural heritage policies and intellectual property law. Her work on Chinese music has resulted in the book Echoes of History: Naxi Music in Modern China (Oxford University Press, 2000), the edited essay volume Lives in Chinese Music (University of Illinois Press, 2009), the award-winning co-directed documentary film Playing the Flute in Shanghai: The Musical Life of Dai Shuhong (Pan Records, 2021), numerous articles in English- and Chinese-language journals, and several collaborative CD projects. Her applied work has included acting as interpreter, translator and presenter for Chinese musicians at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and other overseas venues, and developing care and management policies for UCLA’s World Musical Instrument Collection (2013–2017). She is also active as a performer of recorder and Chinese flutes.

Music of China; ritual music; biography; ecomusicology; intangible cultural heritage policy and practice in East Asia; transmission and performance of Asian musics overseas

Ph.D. Music, University of Pittsburgh; B.A. Chinese, Oxford University, England; diplomas in flute teaching (Royal College of Music, London), baroque flute performance (Trinity College, London), and recorder teaching and performance (Trinity College, London)