​Russell Murray teaches music history and literature. He is also a faculty member in Women’s Studies and the University of Delaware Honors Program. He is active as a mentor for undergraduate researchers and as an advisor for student theses, and he has led study-abroad programs in Paris and Italy.

Dr. Murray is the founding director of the University of Delaware Collegium Musicum. The Collegium, performs music of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the Baroque era, using period instruments from the department's extensive collection. Under his leadership, the Collegium has grown from four students to a program incorporating a number of vocal and instrumental ensembles and regularly involving 20 to 30 students. He is musical director of the Chesapeake Silver Cornet Brass Band, and is a member of Newberry's Victorian Cornet Band.

Dr. Murray's research has focused primarily on sacred music of the Renaissance. His work includes biographical, historical and theoretical studies of music and musicians in the city of Parma and Northern Italy. He received a Fulbright Award for dissertation research in 1986-87, as well as grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities. He is the co-editor of an electronic edition of Pietro Pontio's Dialogo (1595) published as part of the Thesaurus Musicarum Italicarum. He regularly presents papers at national and international conferences, has published articles and reviews in numerous journals and is a contributor to the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Most recently he has co-edited a book on teaching music in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance for Indiana University Press.

New technology has long been an important component in Dr. Murray's teaching, and he has developed multimedia and interactive course materials utilizing CD and laserdisc media in conjunction with the hypertext and interactive formats available with the computer. These materials have ranged from simple guides for individual pieces to more involved lessons that are integrated into the structure of the individual courses. He is author of the Interactive Presentations and Listening Guides for the Norton Recorded Anthology of Western Music and with Kristin Forney the Norton WebBOOK and the Norton/Sony Essentials of Music, all published by W.W. Norton. He is currently interested in finding ways of using new media and Web-based systems to promote student engagement.

Dr. Murray is a faculty sponsor for Pi Kappa Lambda and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia.