Katherine Preston

Education and Curriculum Vitae

• B.A., Liberal Arts, The Evergreen State College
• M.A. in Music and Musicology, University of 玛丽land-College Park
• Ph.D., City University of New York
• Curriculum Vitae

Background

I decided on a "career" in musicology rather late in my college career: as an undergraduate, I had never heard of the discipline. I was always interested in the idea of connection, however, and discovered musicology as a discipline that has the potential of being inherently interdisciplinary. The field also allowed me to combine, quite nicely, my interests in music, history, and writing.

I have also always been interested in the idea of American music. I remember as child taking piano lessons and asking my teacher why she never gave me any compositions by Americans to study. Her response, "there aren't any," reflects a general American ignorance about our own musical heritage that persists to this day. I hope, through my work as a musicologist, to help illuminate the rich and unique musical heritage that all Americans share.

My particular fascination is with the place of music in the lives of Americans of the nineteenth century. I've studied the performance history of opera in the antebellum period, the work of journeymen musicians in Washington, D. C. during the last several decades of the nineteenth century, and the pioneering musical theatre work of Tony Harrigan and David Braham in the 1880s and 1890s, the activities of women managers of English-language opera troupes in the late nineteenth century, and the career of George Frederick Bristow (1825-1898), a composer, performer, teacher, and champion of American composers who was a pillar of the New York musical community for most of the nineteenth century.

Areas of Specialization

I recently retired from teaching. During my time as a university professor, however, I taught all aspects of western music history, but in particular music of the 18th and 19th centuries, the areas of my research strengths. I taught survey courses in various historical periods (the Baroque and Classic Periods, the Romantic Period) as well as such topical courses as Music in the United States, American Popular Music, Music in Film, and Musical Theatre. I also taught specialized courses like “Music of the Civil War Period,” “Musical Life in 1853: London, New York, Berlin, Paris, and Vienna,” “The Piano in the Nineteenth Century,” and "Music of the Civil War Era." I very much enjoyed teaching but after thirty years I decided to retire in order to concentrate more fully on research and writing.

Research

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Fellowships and Grants

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I am also a former President of the Society for American Music, an international organization of scholars interested in American music and music in America.

Even though I am retired, I am always interested in hearing from present or former students at William & 玛丽 and elsewhere!