Amanda Babington

Lecturer in Music

FHEA, PhD, MA (Performance), MA (Musicology), BMus (Hons)

About Amanda

  • PhD Supervisor
  • Module coordinator for PG modules Repertoire Project and The Freelance Musician
  • Tutor for PG module Research Lecture Recital
  • PG Mentor
  • Elective tutor
  • Theory tutor
  • Artist Development tutor
  • Performance Studies tutor
  • Lecturer on MCP1 Module
  • Personal Tutor for UG
  • Staff Representative for Staff Engagement Working Group

Dr Amanda Babington is a Senior Lecturer at the Royal Northern College of Music and Executive Officer for the Royal Musical Association. She has published several articles on Handel, and her edition for the Hallische Händel-Ausgabe of Handel’s Dettingen Te Deum and Dettingen Anthem was published by Bärenreiter in 2016. She is regularly invited to give talks at Göttingen International Handel-Festival, and her book Handel’s Messiah: the Creative Process was published in 2024.

Amanda is also a musette player, baroque violinist and recorder player, specialising in historically informed performance. Artistic Director of Baroque In The North, she has played and recorded with many of the leading British and European period-instrument ensembles.

Her debut musette album, Music for French Kings, was well-received on its release in 2022, and featured on BBC Radio 3’s Early Music Show. She appears on several recordings with Les Talens Lyrique and Ex Cathedra, as well as a recording of newly-edited and previously–unrecorded music by Giovanni Ruggieri (Aberdeen Early Music Collective, Vox Regis, 2018) and another of music by Gottfried Finger (Harmonious Society of Tickle Fiddle Gentlemen, Ramée, 2019). Her second musette album, Friends in High Places will be released in 2026 on the First Hands Records label.

Amanda was Director of the University of Manchester Baroque Orchestra, 2006-2023, Visiting Performance Fellow at the University of Aberdeen 2010-2019, and has given masterclasses at various universities and conservatoires in the UK, and at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music in Riga.

Current and Future Research

Amanda is currently researching Musette repertoire at the Second Stuart Court in Exile (Rome), some of the findings of which will be presented in her forthcoming musette album, Friends in High Places.

Research Areas

  • Handel
  • Editing
  • Performance Practice
  • Musical culture in the North East of Scotland in the 18th century
  • French Baroque music

External Research Roles

  • Executive Officer, Royal Musical Association (2022 – present)
  • Artistic Director, Baroque In The North (2019 – present)
  • Academic Tutor at Junior Royal Northern College (2015 – 2022)
  • Lecturer, Liverpool Hope University (2013 – 2014)
  • Visiting Performance Fellow, University of Aberdeen (2011 – 2021)
  • Director, University Baroque Orchestra, University of Manchester (2006 – 2023)
  • Self-employed Performing Musician (2003 – present)

Funded Research Projects

  • The National Lottery Community Fund
  • RMA Small Research Grant
  • Music & Letters Award

Undergraduate Teaching

  • Theory and Musicianship
  • Music, Culture and Performance
  • Performance Studies
  • Research Electives
  • Artist Development

Postgraduate Teaching

  • Repertoire Project (Module coordinator)
  • Freelance Musician (Module coordinator)
  • Research Lecture Recital (Module tutor)

Research Supervision

Current supervision of PhDs:

  • Peggy Nolan
  • Gen Li
  • Parisa Pirzadeh

Written Outputs

Perspectives from a Conservatoire on Editing Lesser-Known Music, 1600–1820

Glatthorn, A., Babington, A., Davies, H., O’Farrell, A.-M. & Swayne, A., 2027, (In preparation) Musicology Australia.

Handel’s Messiah: the Creative Process

Babington, A., 7 Jun 2024, 1st ed. Jenny Stanford Publishing. 306 p.

Handel Offerings

Babington, A., 2019, In: Early Music. 47, 4, p. 604-607 4 p.

‘Handel the Tutor’

Babington, A., 2014, In: Brio Journal. 51, 1, p. 16-22

Musical References in the Jennens-Holdsworth Correspondence (1729-46)

Babington, A. & Chrissochoidis, I., 21 Aug 2014, In: Royal Musical Association Research Chronicle. 45, 1, p. 76-129

Practice Research/Compositions

Friends in High Places

Babington, A. (Composer), van Troyen, B. (Performer), Babington, C. (Performer), Francis, D. (Performer) & Shaw, M. (Performer), 21 Aug 2026

Public Presentations and Performance

Baroque & Beyond

Babington, A. (Speaker / presenter), Babington, C. (Performer) & Francis, D. (Performer)

5 Jul 2026

Baroque & Beyond

Babington, A. (Speaker / presenter), Babington, C. (Performer) & Francis, D. (Performer)

4 Jul 2026

18th Century Symposium

Babington, A. (Participant)

13 May 2026

Eighteenth-Century Music Symposium

Babington, A. (Speaker / presenter), Duncan, C. (Speaker / presenter), Glatthorn, A. (Speaker / presenter) & Vickers, D. (Speaker / presenter)

13 May 2026

Baroque & Beyond

Babington, A. (Speaker / presenter)

14 Mar 2026

International Bagpipe Conference

Babington, A. (Participant)

6 Mar 2026

Baroque & Beyond

Babington, A. (Speaker / presenter)

31 Jan 2026

January Jubilation

Babington, A. (Speaker / presenter)

31 Jan 2026

June Jollity

Babington, A. (Speaker / presenter)

15 Jun 2025

International Händel Festspiele Göttingen

Babington, A. (Speaker / presenter)

16 May 2025