Department of Music

Ardi Echevarria has been appointed to a permanent lectureship at Somerville College and St Catherine's College, Oxford University, which he will take up in the academic year 2026-27. Ardi will teach music analysis and subjects in music history.

We’re hosting a new £1.3m (€1.5m) research project, led by Dr Amanda Hsieh, shedding light on the history and impact of the Japanese Empire on the Pacific through music.

Plain Air, a 53-minute composition for voice, piano and electronics by Dr James Weeks, Associate Professor in Composition, has been released to critical acclaim on First Hand Records. The piece sets texts by Scottish nature writer Nan Shepherd, from her classic work 'The Living Mountain'.

The Music Department has published, on the department YouTube channel, a series of six educational videos, produced by Dr Ian Dickson and Dr Simone Tarsitani, on eighteenth-century European harmony, focusing on the Bach chorale. The big finish to Part 6 is a performance given by four talented Durham students.

Durham climbed nine places in the QS World University Rankings, to 85th. The Arts and Humanities department, of which music is a part, was ranked even higher, at 31st. 

Durham University’s Arts and Humanities subjects have performed strongly in the latest Unifresher subject rankings, helping to secure Durham’s position as the UK’s leading Russell Group university in the Unifresher 2027 Rankings.