Sara Salloum: Lutenist

Hello and welcome to my website! I am a professional performing musician of Renaissance plucked string instruments, and a music scholar interested in female musicians principally from the early modern period. My AHRC-funded doctoral work (completed Oct 2024) investigated the lute performance practices of gentry women in early seventeenth-century England. 

Publicity material and a link to my YouTube channel Sara & the Lute can be found here: https://sarasalloum-lutenist.blogspot.com/p/promotional-images.html   https://www.youtube.com/@sara_and_the_lute

It was an honour to present my most recent research at an international conference held at the Conservatorio ‘Giuseppe Verdi’ in Turin. The conference was titled: 'Human Body, Musical Performance and its Visual Representation throughout History', and took place from 19-21st March 2026.  https://www.luigiboccherini.org/2025/09/08/human-body-musical-performance-and-its-visual-representation-throughout-history/ 

My PhD thesis was awarded the Royal Musical Association Practice Research Prize 2025! Read more about it here: RMA 2025 Practice Research Prize awarded to Sara Salloum – Royal Musical Association The RMA Practice Research Prize for 2025 is awarded to Sara Salloum (University of Newcastle) for her thesis ‘Female lute accomplishment and performance practices in early seventeenth-century England’ (University of Durham). The panel commended this rich and insightful work which drew on detailed performance-based practice research and recognised its potential for wider impact through further dissemination in the future. The research findings were original and engaging – of particular interest is the experiential work on how the clothes worn by female lute players shaped movement and influenced performance choices.

Thank you to the Lit & Phil Historic Library in Newcastle-upon-Tyne for having me as a guest performer for one of your prestigious lunchtime concerts. It was fantastic to perform music from early modern English female-owned lute books to a highly enthusiastic and engaged audience on 1st Aug 2025.

It was a complete pleasure and privilege to be a part of Singing with Nightingales ' Shakespeare Special on the 18th April . I can still hardly believe I really did duet with a nightingale! That's one performance I won't ever forget. Thank you also to Sam Lee and Debs Newbold for your kindness and artistry.  See my Artist Profile here . 

New podcast episode for the Early Music @ Newcastle Festival is now live! Watch here (below), or on YouTube . Thank you so much Jacob Heringman for being part of this!