Dr. von Rueden's research interests focus on inclusive choral experiences and programming.

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In the summer of 2024, she is researching ways to create a choral experience that is inclusive of all music experience levels, cultural and demographic backgrounds, socioeconomic levels, and ages and beginning a new database project, the Inclusive Choral Practice Database. This builds on work from 2023 with the Institute of Composer Diversity when Dr. von Rueden oversaw the launch of the Institute of Composer Diversity's Resource Database, a online bibliography which she compiled. This searchable collection of books, articles, dissertations, webinars and more allows users to find resources to further their own knowledge about composers and works listed in ICD's other databases, as well as performance practice, cultural and language guides, works analyses, and best practices to accomplish ADEI goals in programming. Her new database will bring in the resources from this database that focus on choral music, as well as include resources on rehearsal practices, wellbeing, and the cultivation of inclusive spaces in choral practice. This is a work in progress.

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Dr. von Rueden served until recently as Assistant Director and co-Coordinator for the Choral Works Database, a database of choral repertoire by composers from underrepresented groups, including women, composers of color, and members of the LGBTQIA2s+ community.

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In 2023, Dr. von Rueden published on the gender balance of composers programmed at ACDA conference performances in the article "Working toward Balance Programming with Tools from the Institute of Composer Diversity's Choral Works Database" in the March/April 2023 issue of Choral Journal.

 

In March 2021, Helena von Rueden presented "Programming in the 21st Century: Trends and Tools to Improve Gender Equity in Choral Music Programs" to the National American Choral Directors Association analyzed trends in gender equity on choral music programs are recent national and regional choral conferences.  She has put together a website of resources to help other conductors research and program choral works by women.

 

November 2017, Dr. von Rueden presented a poster at the National Collegiate Choral Organization's bi-anuual conference on the benefits of interdisciplinary choral music programming for students, choral programs and conductors, audiences, and institutions.  

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At UC Santa Barbara, Dr. von Rueden researched the pedagogical use of figurative language in collegiate choral rehearsals across four choral conductors and their ensembles.  She found that when teaching about vocal technique and musical expressivity, conductors  more often used figurative language, whereas they employed narrative or storytelling for the purposes of developing personal and/or emotional connections amongst rehearsal participants or to the music being rehearsed.