Team

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  Angie Addo

  Regional management Central- und Eastern Switzerland

  Both the temperature and the culture shock that nine-year-old Angie had to cope with when she moved from Southern California to Switzerland, she dealt with through music. Her first guitar ignited her inner fire and opened up a new world of her own. The woody smell of her acoustic guitar still takes her back to her childhood and is a treasure trove of many wonderful memories.

   

  Angie is a musician, DJ and activist. With her openness, she has been shaping Lucerne’s cultural life for some time now, in a warm but determined and demanding way. She has since given up her job as a tour guide for people with disabilities and now focuses her energy on diversity but also on safety in Lucerne’s nightlife. As a person of colour, she knows what she is talking about when she fights for more space for the less-heard, less-visible people and for safer spaces in nightlife. In clubs, she does important work to educate people and raise awareness, but as a DJ she also performs on club stages in several formations. Her solo project is called “AKUAKU”, her DJ collective is “Midnight Snack Collective”.

   

  She came to Helvetiarockt through her own personal and musical development, when she wanted to emancipate herself from a technical point of view and become independent of her music partner. She attended the Song Sketches workshop and trained herself as a DJ. Attending the workshop turned into a commitment as a DJ coach, and later she additionally took over the Regional Management for Central and Eastern Switzerland. Patience personified, at the same time multi-faceted and bursting with energy, she is the perfect person for this double mandate and is able, like no one else, to inspire her fellow human beings, including us and the workshop participants, time and again. The only weak point is her vulnerability for bribery, due to her love of cream slices.

   

  angie@helvetiarockt.ch

  Pronouns: They / She

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  Anita Schaub

  Internal Communication & Project Management

  Anita has a creative mind, a talent for organisation and is a team player. It’s no wonder that her career at Helvetiarockt took off after starting out as a temporary replacement. She has taken over various projects while also attending to the graphical needs of the team – constantly adjusting and tinkering with the website.

   

  In the era prior to working at Helvetiarockt, Anita was active in communication for the GHOST FESTIVAL and the foundation EQUIPE VOLO. In the latter case, she also lent a hand on the front line herself, lugging boxes and driving the big vehicles with the clients during removals. She is a hands-on person anyway: whether in the office or at home, Anita has no problem with getting her hands dirty. Whether at home or at the office, she gets things done with no hesitation, with a laptop in one hand and screwdriver in the other.

   

  When Anita is not in the office, she is working on texts and graphics for the clients of her own graphic studio or competing with her son in high diving, volleyball or basketball. Or maybe she’s off somewhere in nature, far away from civilisation, with no reception at all. She never goes anywhere without her headphones though, because music is her elixir of life: Soul, hip-hop, reggae, from dub to electro – all flowing constantly through her eardrums. Whe dances whenever possible into the early hours of the morning to booming bass at some concert or party – preferably drum’n’bass and jungle – recharging her beat-battery.

   

  anita@helvetiarockt.ch

  Pronouns: She/Her

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  Elia Meier

  Organisational Development & Fundraising

  Elia would rather place a few GIFs here than a text. Before animated images took over our lives however, they spent their days on the soccer field. Looking for a new challenge to tackle, he have since been exploring the depths of the cultural landscape. During his studies of social sciences and communication science at the University of Lucerne, they became a co-founder of “kopfkino”, “Queer Office” and “Frau*, Mann*, Mensch”, which are all being successfully continued. Their passion for project management and communication became evident as the program assistant at Neubad Lucerne, in the Sponsoring & Fundraising department at the Bernese Historical Museum and at the cultural mediation agency Miozzari & Co. GmbH.

   

  From 2018 to 2022, he was head of communication at Helvetiarockt. Elia currently works in the areas of organisational development and fundraising. Sometimes, Elia won’t make as much as a peep for hours, while having a stare-down with the screen. The next thing you know, they are hatching creative ideas, darting through the office and painting wildly on flipcharts. During their time as an athlete, they also learned how important it is to pamper oneself once in a while and have clearly drilled this message into the team as well. Elia finds relaxation in writing, painting, gaming and bouldering.

   

  elia@helvetiarockt.ch

  Pronouns: He / They

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  Elodie Romain

  Regional management Western Switzerland

  This is Elodie Romain – Guitarist, Singer / Songwriter, Composer, Artist, Coach at Songwriting Camps and now, since 2022, she’s also a regional manager for Helvetiarockt.

   

  Elodie’s music career began when she received a guitar from her mother at just 9 years of age. From then on the music almost wrote itself; Elodie wrote her first songs at age 14 and now can’t imagine her life without music or the people she creates art with. She studied vocals, guitar and music theory at the ETM in Geneva, as well as pedagogy at the HEP in Lausanne. Since 2012 she has been active as an author, composer and artist under the alias Billie Bird. She’s played over a hundred concerts at various clubs and festivals in Switzerland and overseas, as well as playing support slots for Benjamin Clementine, Piers Faccini und Shannon Wright. In 2018 she released her EPs ‘La Nuit’ and ‘Les Déferlantes’ on her own label Les Exploratrices. Her first album is set to be released very soon!

   

  Elodie started at Helvetiarockt as a coach at the songwriting camp in Fribourg and has been an integral part of the Helvetiarockt family ever since. Now she’s also regional manager for West Switzerland, making sure that Helvetriarockt is well represented in Suisse Romande. When not organising workshops, rocking the stage or the studio, Elodie loves to spend time the precious people in her life or grab a coffee by the lake in Lausanne.

   

  elodie@helvetiarockt.ch

  Pronouns: She / Her

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  Geneviève Rossier

  Fundraising and Network Romandie

  Geneviève Rossier grew up in Aubonne, halfway between the Lake Geneva and the Jura mountains. At a very young age, she developed a passion for cinema and became a projectionist at the village cinema. One thing leading to another, she managed the programming and events for the cinema alongside her studies in literature. With a degree in History and Aesthetics of Cinema from the University of Lausanne, Geneviève worked for several years with the Visions du Réel festival in Nyon as a member of the selection committee and in the press department. From 2006 to 2011, she was in charge of the production of diploma films in the Film Department of the Ecole Cantonale d’Art de Lausanne (ECAL) and coordinated the Master’s programme in Cinema HES-SO.

   

  In addition to these activities, she founded Thera Production in Lausanne and co-produced “Nuvem” by Basil Da Cunha, presented at the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes in 2011. Between 2010 and 2013 she worked as a producer for the Alva Film collective in Geneva and produced several feature-length documentaries.

   

  After the birth of her eldest daughter, she joined the Fondation romande pour le cinéma team in 2014. She assists the head of selective and additional funding and is specifically in charge of distribution support. During these years at Cinéforom her knowledge of the cultural policies of both the French-speaking part of Switzerland and national policy grew. Also she became more familiar with gender issues in the audiovisual sector.

   

  She is passionate about the representation of women in films and in professional artistic circles and feels the need to deepen this field of investigation and to contribute to a more balanced representation of the sexes and more diversity in culture in general.

   

  In June 2021, she joined the Helvetiarockt team and is responsible for fundraising in French-speaking Switzerland. This is an opportunity for her to get to know the Swiss music ecosystem better and to link her feminist commitment to her professional activity.

   

  In addition to films and music, Geneviève loves outdoor activities, hiking or skiing, and tending to the large community garden at the foot of her building. She also enjoys retreating to the gentle valleys of the Pre-Alps or Engadine with her two children and her partner.

   

  genevieve@helvetiarockt.ch

  Pronouns: She / Her

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  Jasmin Albash

  Regional Management North

  Jasmin Albash is a singer, music writer, vocal coach and is very talented in organizing. She likes people and enjoys sharing her knowledge with them. As a broadly and professionally trained singer (WIAM Winterthur, Complete Vocal Institute, Copenhagen) she has participated in various music projects during her musical career. Jasmin gave her first beatmaking workshop for Helvetiarockt in 2019. In 2020, we were able to inspire her to join us as Regional Manager for the North and Espace region, where she coordinates a range of Helvetiarockt Music Lab workshops. The rest of the time, Jasmin focuses on her musical projects and her family.

   

  But first things first. Jasmin Albash grew up in Altnau in the canton of Thurgau and took her first singing lessons at the music school in Romanshorn. In 2006 she moved to Basel and four years later she founded the SING OUT LOUD! school, where she led individual coaching sessions, group workshops and choirs until 2020.

   

  In Autumn 2018, she co-founded the band Kallemi, which emerged from Kaserne Basel’s exchange project between Basel and Ramallah, and toured with the band in Palestine, Israel, Germany, Switzerland and Canada in 2019. From 2016 – 2019 Jasmin played under the name “The RK” and released two EP’s. Since 2020 she performs and releases under her own name as a solo artist. Her solo album “Gold” is the result of a musical exploration of her Palestinian roots.

   

  Musical and social engagement has always been an important part of Jasmin’s work as a musician. In 2019, she launched the YouTube channel “Sijada Sessions”, where she invites female and non-binary musicians to collaborate on a song. The channel was intended to make the colourful musical work of professional female and non-binary musicians visible and serve as a networking platform. The platform thus pursues the same goals as Helvetiarockt. With her infectious joie de vivre, musical energy and passion, Jasmin is an endless source of inspiration for aspiring female and non-binary musicians and the perfect match for Helvetiarockt.

   

  jasmin@helvetiarockt.ch

  Pronouns: She / Her

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  Kathy Bajaria

  National community and workshop co-ordination Helvetiarockt Music Lab

  Kathy is the globetrotter amongst us. They have Indian roots, grew up in Sheffield, lived in Liverpool, Berlin and Amsterdam and sometimes secretly dreams of a life in New York or Buenos Aires. Kathy has lived in Lucerne for over 15 years and has been significant in shaping local cultural life by organizing concerts, parties and political events. They are co-founder of Queer Office, in the programming team of the queer film festival PinkPanorama and a member of the Lucerne Integration Commission.

   

  Kathy has led for the project Female* Music Lab since the beginning of 2018 (since 2020 in co-leadership). From 2022, they will be working for the recently launched Helvetiarockt Music Lab, where they are responsible for national community and workshop coordination. They also lead the Musicians in Conversation podcast project. As a music lover, DJ and trained cultural manager, they can optimally use their wide range of experience. Kathy’s broad perspective and ability to see larger contexts is invaluable. It’s impressive to see how easily they connect people and projects with one another. With their calm English manner, they are able to cool down any heated discussion. Not even cold water will make them flinch. You might even catch a glimpse of them swimming in the Lake of Lucerne, the River Letten or the Aare in late autumn. So cool.

   

  kathy@helvetiarockt.ch

  Pronouns: She / They

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  Letizia Carigiet

  Co-management Helvetiarockt On Tour & Diversity Roadmap

  Feminism may have already begun in the cradle for Letizia. Hailing from the Canton of Grisons, she has been involved and dedicated in numerous projects for a better world. She stands up and speaks out against injustice, without being boisterous. She has done campaign work for “Flirt Don’t Hurt”, “16 Tage Gegen Gewalt an Frauen” and is co-initiator of the Queens* of Hip-Hop Festival. She studied German Literature, Edition Philology & Theatre Studies, led the youth mentoring project “womentoring” and has been involved in education and youth politics. She later worked as a research assistant for a project at the University of Bern.

   

  Since 2018 she has been rousing up Helvetiarockt as an all-rounder, combining her passion for music with the fight against inequality. She started out leading the Helvetiarockt bandworkshops and the musicdirectory.org. Since 2022, Letizia has been co-managing the Diversity Roadmap & On Tour projects and is our expert on the topic of sexualised violence in clubs and festivals. Fresh inputs and critical questions are Letizia’s specialty. Despite – or maybe precisely because of – her analytical and calm nature, she cracks people up with her dry humor. Should this ever fail to defuse a critical situation, she has one last ace up her sleeve. With her “Silly Dance” she’ll have everyone rolling on the floor laughing in no time.

   

  letizia@helvetiarockt.ch

  Pronouns: She / Her

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  Muriel Rhyner

  Project Manager Courses in Producing & Songwriting

  Over 600 concerts played in Switzerland and abroad. 5 Albums. 12 years of Delilahs. Muriel is a musician, songwriter, booker and project manager. She wrote her first own songs at the age of twelve, soon after she grabbed a bass guitar and established herself as an autodidact in the industry.

   

  She has been involved with Helvetiarockt since day one, developed the Helvetiarockt Songwriting Camp in 2015 and has been cooking up additional offers for professional musicians since 2018. She makes the most out of her small workload and knows how to use her resources. At work she has been dubbed with the honourable nickname “Brainchild Slingshot” and is not afraid to take on any administrative tasks. As coach of the Helvetiarockt Bandworkshop in Bern and director of the Songwriting Camp in Zug, she genuinely sparks the interest in music in women. Her passion is contagious. She enriches our team on all levels and brings important perspectives to the table. As an experienced musician and teacher she is interested in offering high-quality courses and knows exactly what it feels like to stir up the industry as a woman. P.S.: If you are looking for project ideas, contact her!

   

  muriel@helvetiarockt.ch

  Pronouns: She / Her

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  Nesrine Ghulam

  Regional Coordinator Helvetiarockt Music Lab

  With Swiss-Iraqi roots, Nesrine grew up in the cosmos of Geneva, bringing with her a diverse cultural background by nature. It is therefore not surprising that she graduated from the University of Geneva with a master’s degree in Gender Studies. During her studies, she became particularly interested and fascinated by the field of “gender performances”. She soon recognised music and dance as important tools for emancipation and as a means of self-expression for women* and minorities. To raise awareness of sexism and racism, she organised and coordinated various events, including the 3-day festival “Universitaire Genre et Egalité”. She founded the association “L’Escouade” for awareness-raising work on sexism such as the feminisation of street names in Geneva.

   

  It is also the topic of gender that led Nesrine to the Federal Office for Gender Equality in 2020, where she worked for a short time and participated in various national events on gender equality issues.

   

  When the new space “Le Groove”, club and concert venue for young people, is created in Geneva in Autumn 2021, she took over the coordination. Her goal, to create a truly inclusive space that on the one hand makes young women in music visible and also makes a clear statement with a zero tolerance for harassment, in terms of audience.

   

  Since January 2022, we have been enjoying Nesrine’s refreshing, young spirit and her wealth of experience, which enriches our commitment on a daily basis. When she is not networking for us, she is climbing up walls. If you don’t find her in the climbing hall, you might find your legs moving to her house or techno beats as she mixes the perfect sound as an amateur DJ once again. Always on the lookout for new artists and styles, she is definitely in the right place at Helvetiarockt.

   

  nesrine@helvetiarockt.ch

  Pronouns: She / Her

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  Pascale Diggelmann

  Head of Communication

  Whether it be for new projects or the further development of tried and tested ones, Pascale is always ready to tackle anything with her ample creative ideas and visions. Her infectious passion draws everyone into the project with her. She already impressed her collegues at event venues such as Moods and KIFF with her keen sense of text and visuals. Since 2016 she has been enriching the Swiss music scene with her writing, putting together texts after work for event organisers such as Kulturzüri or Bad Bonn.

   

  Pascale gets a lot done with ease. When work piles up, she’s even more motivated and efficient. It comes as no surprise then, that she’s also studying Media and Media Management part-time and even organises second-hand clothes markets. From time to time, she likes to relax on the sofa. It is a mystery to us how she manages to do that, what with all the yoga, hiking and dancing that she also fits in. As long as her hearty laughter can be heard the halls of the office and as long as she’s wearing quirky socks, we remain assured that she maintains a healthy work-life balance.

   

  pascale@helvetiarockt.ch

  Pronouns: She / Her

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  Regula Frei

  Head of Fundraising

  The number of sleepless nights Regula has had during her time with Helvetiarockt is one of the most closely kept secrets of the Swiss music industry. She has been with Helvetiarockt since day one in 2012 and managed everything solo in the beginning. In the meantime, she has the support of a powerful team, and together they march towards the common goal of equality. Whenever she takes a moment to reminisce how much this project has grown, her eyes may water up. Regula is seldomly calm and reserved. From her sharp and astute gaze you can tell that her vision is very clear. Being pragmatic and down to earth, she only takes on projects that are realistic, yet meaningful. Focusing on the outcome and success she never stops questioning how things can be more inclusive.

   

  As a teacher and adult educator, she brings high didactic standards to the table, but she has also rolled up her sleeves working for the SBB and PROGR, adding to her diverse skills and wide range of experience. Although Regula may be solid as a rock on one hand, her soft spot is her big open heart where everyone is welcome. So you wonder where to find her after work? In the limelight rocking the stage as a double bass player.

   

  regula@helvetiarockt.ch

  Pronouns: She / Her

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  Sophie Kuhn

  Head of Administration & Finance

  Latest in 2004, Sophie made her passion for music, culture and youth movements public with her active membership at the Gaskessel. But she was already immersed in the world of music as a child. The Gaskessel was her first work placement after graduating at the Ecole supérieure de commerce in Neuchâtel. Later, she managed the administration and the bar. After that, Sophie set off for new professional fields. She worked for 8 years in property management, with intermediate stops in salary administration, financial accounting and as an assistant to the management. At the same time, she began training as a Bach flower therapist for dogs.

   

  Sophie has been in charge of our administration and finances since 2020. Her know-how has been sweeping us off our feet since the beginning. Sophie does it, get it organised, delivers new solutions, remodels and builds. She does it in such a way that even our lot, sometimes befuddled by creativity, understands what is at stake. Sophie facilitates processes, creates overviews and thus puts the whole association on solid ground. And during this whole process, she also infects us with her pragmatic calmness. But Sophie is not only calm, she can also race through and check things off. Her talent is knowing when to get into a groove. And when she can’t stand the office anymore, she’ll get on her horse or you might meet her with her two dogs by the Aare.

   

  sophie@helvetiarockt.ch

  Pronouns: She / Her

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

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  Yvonne Meyer

  Co-management Helvetiarockt On Tour & Diversity Roadmap

  You’re lucky if you should ever meet Yvonne in one of our offices. She’s usually on the road, working on her projects between Basel, Lausanne or Lucerne. With a degree in cultural management, her work mainly consists of developing and implementing target-oriented formats with various people and organisations at festivals. In spite of the manifold tasks and challenges that these collaborations bring, she always keeps a cool head and never loses sight of the nitty-gritty. However, as soon as one event is over and done with she is already on to the next task-such as finalising the programmation for the next year. She is driven by this tempo and it gives her the necessary kick.

   

  After 10 years as co-managing director of bee-flat in the PROGR in Bern, this is probably just lightweight anyway. Apart from Helvetiarockt, she is also involved with Sonart on the Jazz Advisory Board. Through her passion for music, Yvonne is able to keep her finger on the pulse of the industry and is always on the ball. With her enthusiasm she consistently lifts the spirit of the whole team and makes sure that we don’t forget why we do what we do.

   

  yvonne@helvetiarockt.ch

  Pronouns: She / Her