Helena received her BA in Piano Performance from São Paulo State University (2010) and her MA in Japanese Language, Literature and Culture from the University of São Paulo (2022). She is currently pursuing her MA in Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia, researching premodern Japanese literature under the supervision of Prof. Joshua Mostow and Prof. Christina Laffin. Her previous research, entitled “Sounds from behind the blinds: musical images of Genji monogatari“, explored the relationship between the musical elements, narrative development and character depiction in the 11th century work The Tale of Genji (Genji monogatari, 源氏物語), written by the court lady Murasaki Shikibu. The abundance of musical scenes (concerts, conversations about music and music lessons, among others) throughout the novel caught her attention when reading the work and she benefited from her musical background to conduct this interdisciplinary research. Her dissertation will soon be published at the University of São Paulo open e-book platform. She intends to further explore aspects of musical performance in the Genji at her MA at UBC, including the relationship between music and poetry.

Related work:

Publication of the article “Genji’s performance in the autumn festival: between the human and the divine”, in the e-book “Multiple Faces of International Japanese Research: integration and convergence”, 2021.

Lecture about Heian culture in the extension course “Artistic pluralities in Japan: literary, visual and sound expressions”, which happened online at the University of São Paulo between August 10th and September 14th, 2021.

Participation in the 13th International Conference in Japanese Studies in Brazil, in March 2021, with the presentation entitled “Introduction to the musical universe of Genji monogatari”.

Video submitted to the 2nd Graduate Student Video Award in 2020:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puljjjMbhBA