Billeri Francesca
Key information
- Qualifications
- BA (Palermo, Italy), MA (Rome)
- Email address
- 573194@soas.ac.uk
- Thesis title
- Interrelations Among Genres in Traditional Khmer Music and Theatre: Phleng Kar, Phleng Arak, Lkhaon Yiikee and Lkhaon Bassac
Biography
Francesca Billeri is a PhD candidate in Music at SOAS. In 2002 she achieved a piano diploma at the Conservatoire in Italy. In 2009 Billeri undertook a research on Cambodian traditional wedding music to complete a Master degree at Rome University under the supervision of Giovanni Giuriati. In 2013 she organized the first Khmer music workshop at SOAS gathering scholars from France and Italy. In 2017 co-organized an interdisciplinary seminar "Changes in Action: New Technologies, Media and Transformations in Contemporary Southeast Asian Performing Arts" at SOAS funded by the Doctoral School. Billeri’s research is on the interrelation of Khmer wedding music (phleng kar) and other traditional genres, in particular music accompanying healing ceremonies (phleng arak) and popular theatre lkhon yiikee and lkhon bassac. She is also studying the effects of the ongoing process of preservation and revival of Khmer traditional music by examining the work of local NGOs and governmental institutions.
Research interests
- System of classification in music oral traditions
- The concept of genre in ethnomusicology
- Process of preservation
- Revival and sustainability of traditional music