Rachael Durkin

Rachael Durkin is an Associate Professor of Music at Northumbria University and Principal Investigator of the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship project 'Global Music Technologies: Collaboration and Cultural Exchange' (2024-28). She holds a PhD from the University of Edinburgh (2015) and previously taught at The University of Edinburgh and Edinburgh Napier University. Her research focuses on organology—the study of musical instruments—with expertise in string instruments of the 17th-18th centuries and intersections of music and literature.

Key roles include leading the Montagu Collection of Global Musical Instruments, chairing Music Partnership North (Newcastle/Northumberland), and serving on The Galpin Society board. She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and collaborates with Trinity College London, ISM, and regional music hubs.

Her publications include the groundbreaking monograph The Viola d’Amore: Its History and Development (2020) and the Routledge Companion to Music and Modern Literature (2022). Recent research explores industrial-age instrument innovation and ethical care of cultural artifacts like Tibetan skull drums.

Her work bridges historical musicology and material culture, with global media attention for discoveries linking Victorian literature to Sherlock Holmes' violin symbolism.