Staff profile

Dr Simone Tarsitani is an ethnomusicologist and audiovisual specialist who has worked in academic teaching and research, artistic and music production contexts. He studied at the University of Rome 'Sapienza', where he was awarded his PhD in History and Analysis of Musical Cultures (2006). His earlier studies include music theory and piano (Conservatories of Rome and Latina, Italy), and technologies applied to music (Department of New Technologies, Scuola di Alto Perfezionamento Musicale, Saluzzo, Italy).

He has been teaching since 2010 in the Music Department's Audiovisual Documentation and Analysis, Creative Music Technology, Introduction to Ethnomusicology, Studies in Popular Music modules. Since 2002 he has been involved in several international research projects and recently has been working for the AHRC projects 'Khyal: Music and Imagination' and 'Interpersonal Entrainment in Music Performance'. He is also consulting as audiovisual and digital archive specialist at the Intercultural Institute of Comparative Music Studies at the Giorgio Cini Foundation (Venice, Italy).

In August 2012 he was awarded a grant EAP602: 'Preservation of the audio recording collection in the Sherif Harar City Museum, Ethiopia' within the scheme Endangered Archives Programme, sponsored by Arcadia and administered by the British Library. In July 2011 he was awarded a British Academy Small Research Grant for the project "Documentation and analysis of manzuma in eastern Ethiopia", aiming at documenting and analysing manzuma, an Islamic poetry genre of Ethiopia.

Recent appointments include his position as Music Research Officer (2010-2013) at Durham University; Music Research Studio Officer (2009-2010); Leverhulme Trust Visiting Research Fellowship (2008-2009) at the Music Department (The Open University, UK); JSPS Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies (Kyoto University, Japan, 2006-2008); lectureship in ethnomusicology at the Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies (Kyoto University, Japan, 2008); occasional teaching in various Italian universities; participation in the UNESCO/Norway Funds-in-Trust Project "Ethiopia - Traditional music, dance and instruments" (2005-2008); sound archivist (digitization, restoration, editing and archival of recorded sound) at the Audio laboratory, Department of Glotto-anthropological Studies and Musical Subjects ("Sapienza" University of Rome, Italy, 2006); and archivist of intangible cultural heritage (Lazio Region, Italy, 2005).

• Visual Ethnomusicology
• Music technology
• Audiovisual documentation and analysis
• Digital archives
• African music
• Ritual music
• Popular music

Chapter in book

• Tarsitani, B. A., & Tarsitani, S. (2010). Integrating local knowledge in Ethiopian archives: Music and manuscripts in the collection of Abdulahi Ali Sherif. In B. A. Tarsitani, S. Tarsitani, & M. Shigeta (Eds.), African Study Monographs; Supplementary Issue 41 (5-18). Center for African Area Studies, Kyoto University
• Tarsitani, S. (2007). Karabu. In S. Uhlig (Ed.), Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, vol. 3 (341-342). Harassowitz Verlag
• Tarsitani, S. (2007). Kabal. In S. Uhlig (Ed.), Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, vol. 3. Harassowitz Verlag
• Tarsitani, S. (2007). Musical intruments. In S. Uhlig (Ed.), Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, vol. 3 (169-173). Harassowitz Verlag
• Tarsitani, S. (2007). Mawlid in Harar. In S. Uhlig (Ed.), Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, vol. 3 (879-880). Harassowitz Verlag
• Tarsitani, S. (2005). Zikri in Harar. In S. Uhlig (Ed.), Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, vol. 2 (158-159). Harassowitz Verlag
• Tarsitani, S. (2002). Madonna alle porte del Terzo Millennio (Madonna at the beginning of the new Millennium). In C. Fiore (Ed.), Madonna. L'Epos

Conference Paper

• Tarsitani, S. (2006). Zikri Rituals in Harar: a Musical Analysis.

Journal Article

• Clayton, M., Tarsitani, S., Jankowsky, R., Jure, L., Leante, L., Polak, R., …Jakubowski, K. (2021). The Interpersonal Entrainment in Music Performance Data Collection. Empirical Musicology Review, 16(1), 65-84. https://doi.org/10.18061/emr.v16i1.7555
• Tarsitani, S. (2011). Melodic analysis of the performance of Islamic hymns in Harar, Ethiopia
• Tarsitani, S. (2008). Mawlūd: celebrating the birth of the Prophet in Islamic religious festivals and wedding ceremonies in Harar, Ethiopia. Annales d'Ethiopie, 23, 153-176
• Tarsitani, S. (2006). Musica religiosa islamica a Harar (Etiopia): i rituali di zikri (Islamic religious music in Harar – Ethiopia: the zikri rituals)
• Tarsitani, S. (2001). Sax soprano dritto e curvo: due timbri a confronto (Curved and straight soprano saxophones: comparison between timbres)
• Tarsitani, S. (2000). I plug-in audio (Plug-ins for audio software)
• Tarsitani., S. (2000). I software di audio editing (Audio editing software)
• Tarsitani, S. (1999). Computer Music: software di notazione (Music notation software)