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 

 

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

 

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

 

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, Fort 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 Chapter, American Musicological Society, CSU, 2015
• Elected Student Representative, American Musicological Society, Rocky Mtn Chapter, 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