Director
Dr. Jessie M. Vallejo
Assistant Professor in Ethnomusicology
Director of Mariachi Ensembles
BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Jessie M. Vallejo is currently an Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology and Director of Mariachi Ensembles in Cal Poly Pomona’s Music Department. Vallejo teaches across the Music Department’s curriculum, including the following courses:
- World of Music
- Musics of Mexico
- Mariachi Ensembles
- Theory, History, and Design of Musical Instruments
- Ethnomusicology: Theory, History, & Field Methods
- Service Learning Integration
- Senior Seminar
- Careers in Music
- Senior Projects
- Creative Projects
- Beginning and Intermediate Strings
Dr. Vallejo’s primary research focuses on a hemispheric approach to Amerindian studies, which draws from her work with Kichwa-Otavaleño and Kanien'kehá:ka musicians. Her secondary research areas examine issues related to mariachi music and integrating ethnomusicological approaches in K-12 music education programs. She has conducted fieldwork in Ecuador, Mexico, Cuba, Colombia, Spain, the United States, Canada, and Hotinonshón:ni territories. Jessie has presented her research at local, national, and international events across California and the United States, as well as in Bangkok (Thailand), Limerick (Ireland), Guayaquil (Ecuador), Astana (Kazakhstan), St. John’s (Newfoundland, Canada), and Mexico City.
Jessie is currently working on manuscripts about Indigenous cultural-linguistic revitalization projects and mariachi. Dr. Vallejo has co-authored an article examining interdisciplinary approaches to theorizing spacetime [Smithsonian Folklife Magazine / Smithsonian Magazine] and she has also worked as an applied ethnomusicologist, co-producing, annotating, and providing photography for Smithsonian Folkways’ 2013 release ¡Así Kotama!: The Flutes of Otavalo, Ecuador.
As a violinist and vocalist, Jessie performs regularly with Los Angeles-based mariachi groups. She has been a member of Mariachi Tesoro led by Rebecca Gonzales, who was the first woman to play with a professional show mariachi group. Dr. Vallejo’s performance highlights include performing with Mariachi Tesoro as one of four headlining groups at the Albuquerque Mariachi Spectacular, sharing the stage with Mariachi Sol de México de José Hernández, Mariachi Nuevo Tecalitlán, and Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán. As a member of Tesoro, she opened for Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano in 2018.
Other notable mariachi events in which Jessie has performed include Long Beach Mayor Robert García’s inauguration at the Terrace Theater, the Stephenson Memorial Concert Series during College Convention at Berea College (Berea, KY), and Mexican baile folklórico events at the John Anson Ford Amphitheater (Hollywood, CA) and the Alex Theater (Glendale, CA). Dr. Vallejo may also be seen collaborating with rock and fusion acts—El Mariachi Manchester and singer-songwriter Nancy Sanchez—on the stages of the Viper Room (LA), La Cita Bar (LA), The Echo (LA), The House of Blues (Anaheim), Romano's (Riverside), and The Observatory (Santa Ana). When she was the Assistant Director of Mariachi de Uclatlán, she helped organize the ensemble’s trip to Havana, Cuba, where the student ensemble performed with maestros Jesús “Chuy” Guzmán, Natividad “Nati” Cano (Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano), and Havana-based mariachi groups at the Casa de Las Américas’ Ché Guevara Hall.
Jessie Vallejo has performed Andean and South American music at the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage and the Smithsonian Folklife Festival stages (Washington, DC), and also for Dances of Peru dance company’s production Once Upon a Time in Peru at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center (Redondo Beach, CA). Jessie was selected to study the Chinese two-string fiddle (erhu) at the Central Conservatory’s two-week intensive summer program in Beijing, China, and she has performed silk and bamboo music at the Huntington Gardens (Pasadena, CA) and LACMA (Los Angeles) with the UCLA Chinese Music Ensemble. While Jessie was a member of the Crane Symphony Orchestra, she performed at Carnegie Hall (New York City). Dr. Vallejo may also be heard singing back-up vocals on the L.A. BlueGrassHoppers’ self-titled album. Prior to entering the field of ethnomusicology, Vallejo was a music teacher in Syracuse metropolitan area New York State public schools.
One of Dr. Vallejo’s favorite hobbies is cooking and learning new recipes from friends she meets while traveling. Some of the recipes she learned while living in Otavalo, Ecuador are featured in The Ethnomusicologists’ Cookbook: Complete Meals from Around the World, volume 2, edited by Sean Williams.
As a public transit enthusiast and activist, Jessie Vallejo has been a featured storyteller for BUSted Storytelling events. Jessie serves on Cal Poly Pomona’s Transportation Advisory Council, and she enjoys exploring new places via their public transit systems.
Dr. Vallejo received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from UCLA and her B.M. in Music Education with a minor in Spanish from the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam.
Currently, Jessie is learning beginning Italian and is reading Dersu the Trapper by V.K. Arseniev.
PUBLICATIONS
• Forthcoming. "Rikcharipi Uyaykuna." Trilingual (Kichwa/Spanish/English) poem to be published in a collection by Luz María De la Torre. Submitted May 2018.
• 2013. "¡Kashnami Kawsanchik! This is How We Live!" Smithsonian Folklife Festival Blog.
• 2013. Liner notes. ¡Así Kotama!: The Flutes of Otavalo, Ecuador. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Folkways Recordings SFW 40564. See also https://folkways.si.edu/hatun-kotama/asi-kotama-the-flutes-of-otavalo-ecuador/latin-world-american-indian/album/smithsonian
REFEREED CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
2019. "Singing Flutes and Gendered Sounds in the Andes." Presented at the World Conference of the International Council for Traditional Music, Bangkok, Thailand
2019. "Creative and Supportive Pedagogies in Times of Hate: Teaching Musics of Mexico in Higher Education in SoCal." Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology Southern California & Hawai’i Chapter, UC Santa Barbara
2019. "Ethnomusicology: Global Field Recordings: A Publishing Collaboration between the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive and Adam Matthew Digital." Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology Southern California & Hawai’i Chapter, UC Santa Barbara
2018. "Pachamama Taki: Música Kichwa Otavaleña y la Construcción del Espacio-Tiempo." Presentedat the First Latin American and Caribbean Symposium of the International Council for Traditional Music, Salto, Uruguay
2018. Speaker for panel discussion "Music, Women, Diversity." Presented at the Women in Music Festival, Mount Saint Mary's University, Los Angeles
2018. "Afirmando el Legado de Mariachi en Cuba."Presented at the X Coloquio Internacional de Musicología, La Habana, Cuba
2017. "Música, Socialización, y la Interculturalidad: El Caso de Mariachis Universitarios en California."Presented at the IV Coloquio Internacional: Socialización de Latinos en los Estados Unidos: Educación, Religión y Medios Masivos de Comunicación, La Habana, Cuba
2017. "Claiming Cuba’s Mariachi Legacy."Presented at the World Conference of the International Council for Traditional Music, Limerick, Ireland.
2016. Speaker for roundtable "Ethnomusicologists on the Mall: Performing the Smithsonian Folklife Festival." Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology, Washington, DC
2015. "Dancing Pachamama: Kichwa Otavalan Music and the Structuring of Space-Time." Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology, Austin, TX
2015. "Mariachi Music in Ecuador." Presented at the World Conference of the International Council for Traditional Music, Astana, Kazakhstan
2015. "Mariachi Music in South America." Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology Southern California & Hawai’i Chapter, San Diego
2014. "Conviviendo/Living Well Together: Music and Cultural-linguistic Revitalization Contexts in Two Amerindian Nations." Presented at the conference "Music and Performance Contexts (KiK): Exploring New Vistas for Interdisciplinary Research in the Arts," University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway
2014. "Hatun Kotama and Revitalization Efforts of a Transverse Flute Tradition in Andean Ecuador." Presented at the Annual Conference of the Society for American Music, Lancaster, PA
2013. "Ethnomusicological Performances & Perspectives on Music and Health in Mexico, Nicaragua, and Ecuador." Presented with León García and Scott Linford at the UCLA Latin American Institute Symposium "Medicine and Culture in Latin America," Los Angeles
2011. "Teach Them How to Speak Back!: Music Transmission and Language Acquisition on the Ahkwesáhsne Reservation." Presented at the World Conference of the International Council for Traditional Music, St. John’s, Newfoundland
2010. "Teach Them How to Speak Back!: Music, Identity, and Language Acquisition on the Ahkwesáhsne Reservation." Presented at the SUNY Potsdam Campus Festival, Potsdam, NY
2009. "I Listened and It Made Me Cultured: Parodies of Andean Music in South Park / Escuché y Me Hizo Sentir Culturado: Parodías de Música Andina en South Park." Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology, Mexico City
2008. "The Tune Doesn’t Go That Way: Reflections from the Field." Presented at the Annual Conference of Cultural Diversity in Music Education, Seattle
2008. "¡Fuerte, Vivo, y Alegre!: A Classical Violinist’s Exploration of Global Music Education and Her Heritage Through the Study of Mariachi Violin." Presented at the Annual Conference of the Society for American Music, San Antonio, TX
INVITED COLLOQUIA, GUEST LECTURES, PANELS, & PRESENTATIONS
2019. Invited to present keynote lecture "Transmission, Sustainability, and Sociocultural and Linguistic Revitalization in Hatun Kotama's Classes" at Universos Sonoros: The First International Meeting of Ethnomusicology at the Universidad de Artes, Guayaquil, Ecuador
2019. "Mariachi Beyond North America: Mexico's Music Transcends Borders," Chapman University & MUSCO Center for the Arts' Heartbeat of Mexico Big Ideas Culture and Conversation Series, Orange, CA, May 1
2019. Mariachi music performance and workshop for Music in Our Schools Month, Westside Neighborhood School, March 11
2018. "Latinx Music Meeting," Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Washington, DC, September 13
2018. "University Mariachi Ensembles: A Case Study of HSIs and STEAMM Education," Chacala Mariachi Institute, Chacala, Nayarit, Mexico, June 26
2018. "Careful Listening, Creativity and Collaboration: Supporting STEAM Education through Interdisciplinary Research," Cal Poly Pomona, CA, February 15
2016. "Charla Etnomusicológica," Universidad de las Artes, Guayaquil, Ecuador, July 29
2016. "Mariachi History and Globalization," San Diego Mariachi Summit, Southwestern College, Chula Vista, CA, August 18
2016. "The Globalization of Mariachi Music," ¡Viva el Mariachi Femenil! opening event, Chapman University, May 29
2015. "Jobs Clinic: Surviving the Academic Job Market," UCLA, September 28
2015. "Mariachi Music," for class "Music Cultures in the Americas," Chapman University, March 3
2013. "Mariachi Music Workshop," for class "Music Cultures in the Americas," Chapman University, October 24
2012. "The Ecuadorian Sanjuanito," for class "Music in Latin American Culture: Regional Traditions," University of California, Santa Cruz, April 3
2011. "The Gaita Tradition of Northern Ecuador," for class "Interdisciplinary Approaches to Music," Occidental College, October 19
CONTACT
EMAIL:
jmvallejo(a)cpp(dot)edu
PHONE:
(909) 869-4501
MAILING ADDRESS:
Cal Poly Pomona
Dr. Jessie M. Vallejo
Department of Music, Building 24
3801 W. Temple Avenue
Pomona, CA 91768