Dr. Katharyn Benessa
writer, editor, scholar, musician, educator
email: katharynbenessa16@gmail.com 

Blog

• Trunks In the Attic, personal essays and a pictorial archive of five generations of a family’s clothing collection, 2021 to present. https://www.instagram.com/trunksintheattic/
  • Featured in presentations given at the Dress Devolution 3 Conference at Falmouth University, in Cornwall, UK, and online symposium, 19th-Century Dress and Textiles Reframed

 

Forthcoming Publications

• “Dowland is for Everyone! Behind the Making of a New Biography,” an interview with K. Dawn Grapes, author of Dowland, a new biography of English renaissance lutenist/composer, John Dowland, for Soundboard Scholar    
• “Nineteenth-Century Portraits from Thompson, CT,” for Echoes of Old Thompson III 

 

Publications

• “Dowlandia: Leafing Through Grapes’s New Research Guide,” Soundboard Scholar, 9, (1), Guitar Foundation of America, 2023. https://digitalcommons.du.edu/sbs/vol9/iss1/14
• “Leaving the Stage,” Wild West Magazine, Feb 23, 2024. On sharpshooter and wild west showman, Frank Miller.
• “Patrick O’Brien and Douglas Alton Smith: Breaking New Ground. An Introduction to JLSA, Volumes 47–50, A Brief Summary of Each Volume, and Table of Contents,” Lute Society of America Website, https://lutesocietyofamerica.org/publications/pat-obrien-instruction/
• Secular Song of the Spanish Renaissance: Portrayals of Moors and Christians during the Reign of Isabel and Fernando, the Reconquest, and the First Morisco Rebellion, dissertation, UNC, 2018
• “Douglas Alton Smith (1944-2018),” Lute Society of America Quarterly, 53/1 2018
• “Publications: D. A. Smith,” co-author with Arthur Ness, Lute Society of America Quarterly, 53/1 2018
• Two articles in: https://lutesocietyofamerica.org/journal/journal-2016-vol-xlix-journal-2017-vol-l/
  • “Recovery from Focal Dystonia,” Journal of the Lute Society of America, 50 (2017)
  • “What Factors Determine Success or Failure in Treating Musician Hand Injury,” Journal of the Lute Society of America, 49 (2016)
• “Sor Juana and Sacred Villancicos,” Early Music Colorado Quarterly, 20/4 2013

 

Presentations

• “A Private Collection Revealed: Five Generations of One Family’s Clothing,” 19th-Century Dress and Textiles Reframed, 2025
•  “Keeping it in the Family: An examination of Five Generations of One Family’s Clothing,” Dress Devolution 3 Conference, Falmouth University, Cornwall, UK, 2025
• “There’s Something About Mary,” American Musicological Society, National Conference, Minneapolis, MN 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dq3fxzjV_88
• “A Tale of Two Songwriting Teams,” American Musicological Society, Rocky Mountain Chapter Conference, Greeley, CO (event cancelled due to COVID-19), 2020
• “Achieving Inclusivity in a Classical Music Appreciation Course through the Incorporation of Student-Selected Music,” College Music Society, Rocky Mtn. Regional Conference, Laramie, WY (event cancelled due to COVID-19), 2020
• “The Song project: Incorporating Popular Music in a Classical Music Appreciation Course,” poster, College Music Society National Conference, Louisville, KY 
• “Advice for the Lovelorn in Spanish Secular Song,” American Musicological Society, Rocky Mountain Chapter Conference, El Paso, TX, 2019
• “Love and Other Conquests: Moors and Christians in Spanish Secular Song,” College Music Society, Rocky Mountain Regional Conference, Greeley, CO, 2016
  • Best Paper Award
• “The Tientos in Eight Modes for Vihuela by Miguel de Fuenllana,” American Musicological Society, Rocky Mountain Chapter Conference, Tempe, AZ, 2014

 

Published Recording Reviews for The Lute Society of America Quarterly

• “Tablatures: Gaultier, Lespine et Anonymes,” by Jean-Marie Poirier (20180
• “Esaias Reusner: Lute Music,” by Toyohiko Satoh, 51/4 (2016)
• “Bedlam,” by Kayleen Sánchez and Maudon Schuett, 51/2 (2016)
• “Silvius Leopold Weiss: The Complete London Manuscript,” by Michel Cardin, 51/1 (2016)
• “The Famous Weiss,” by David Miller, 50/4 (2015)
• “Pieces from the Gdansk Lute Tablature 4022,” by Magdalena Tomsinka, 50/1-2 (2015)
• “Mésangeau’s Experiments,” by Alex McCartney, 50/1-2 (2015)

 

Experience 

• Museum Assistant, Cultural Services Dept, Ft Collins Museum of Discovery, 2022-2023
• Instructor, Front Range Community College, Fort Collins, CO 2012-2021
  
  • Student-nominated for Master Teacher Award, 2021
• Instructor, Colorado State University, 2015–2018
  
• Proofreader, Editing, for Lute Society of America Quarterly, 2018
• Board of Directors, Lute Society of America, 2017–2020
• Editorial Assistant, Journal of Musicological Research, 2012–2015
• Conference Planning Committee, Rocky Mtn Ch., Am. Musicological Soc., CSU, 2015
• Elected Student Representative, Am. Musicological Soc., Rocky Mtn Ch., 2012–2014
• Restaurant Owner-Operator, Pizzeria La Collina, Fort Collins, CO, 2001-2011

 

Education

• Doctor of Arts, in Music History and Literature, Secondary Emphasis in Music Theory, University of Northern Colorado
  
• Master of Music, in Music History and Literature, Southern Methodist University
  
  • Artistic Scholarship, Meadows School Award
• Master of Music, in Classical Guitar Performance, Southern Methodist University
  
• Bachelor of Music, in Music History, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA