Barbara Kelly

Professor Barbara Kelly is Director of Research at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) since 2015, while also holding a Visiting Professorship at Keele University. Her scholarship focuses on French music and culture (1870-1939), music criticism, nationalism/transnationalism in arts, and European concert life. She earned her PhD at the University of Liverpool (thesis: Darius Milhaud and the French Musical Tradition), preceded by an M.M. in Musicology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an M.A. Hons. in Music and English Literature from the University of Glasgow.

Her research examines intersections of music with cultural institutions in peacemaking, artistic responses to the First World War, and the reception of European music in Britain. She has received grants including an AHRC Research Fellowship, Research England's Expanding Excellence funding (£914,000), and Marie Curie Post-doc grants (€183,455). She has held leadership roles in the Royal Musical Association, including Vice President (2015-2019) and President (2019-2023).

• Current roles: Director of Research (RNCM), Visiting Professor (Keele University)
• Previous roles: Faculty Research Director at Keele University (2014), Head of Humanities Research (2012)

She serves on editorial boards including Twentieth-Century Music and Revue de musicologie, and collaborates with institutions like the Observatoire interdisciplinaire de création et de recherche en musique (Université de Montréal) and AHRC International Network on Francophone Music Criticism.