During her years at the University of Utah, Margaret Rorke has taught the whole gamut of music history from the ancient Greeks to the present day. In more recent years, she has concentrated on the early Greeks through the Classic period, specializing particularly in the Renaissance and Baroque eras. She teaches all levels of courses from undergraduate and graduate lecture courses to seminars in research. Her private students have gone on to pursue advanced degrees at some of the most prestigious institutions in the country. As a visual enhancement to the teaching of music history, she has created a collection of 2,740 digitized images with generous captions.

Dr. Rorke's publications also range through several eras. Among these are "Sacred Contrafacta of Monteverdi Madrigals and Cardinal Borromeo's Milan," in Music and Letters; "St. Mary Magdalen: a Painting, a Poem, and a Madrigal" in Gloria, Laus, et Honor: A Festschrift for Gwynn S. McPeek; and "Music and the Wounded of World War II" and "Music Therapy in the Age of Enlightenment" in The Journal of Music Therapy. In 1997, she served as musicological adviser to the internationally acclaimed Ex Cathedra directed by Jeffrey Skidmore in the creation of its compact disc Claudio Monteverdi: Madrigali fatta spriituale (ASV Gaudeamus label).

In May of 2005, she was awarded the University of Utah College of Fine Arts Faculty Excellence Award for Teaching, Research, and Service.