Scott Joplin: Treemonisha Overture
George Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue
Katherine Benson, Soloist
Emilie Mayer: Symphony No. 1
Young American pianist Katherine Benson is quickly emerging as an important artistic figure of her generation through her “stunning” (ArtsKnoxville) performances and passion for arts leadership.
A native of Jonesborough, TN, Katherine is in demand as a soloist, chamber musician, adjudicator, and teacher, and has performed across the USA and abroad in Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand.
Katherine has additionally garnered numerous triumphs in over a dozen international and national piano competitions, having won top prizes in the Seattle, Kerikeri, Walled City Music, Teresa Carreño, and Thousand Islands International Piano Competitions. Katherine most recently received the prestigious finalist award at the 2022 Heida Hermanns International Music Competition in Westport, CT. Upcoming engagements for the 2023–2024 season include Poulenc’s Concerto for Two Pianos with the Johnson City Symphony Orchestra, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the Spectrum Orchestra, Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, as well as recitals at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor and the University of Tennessee, among others.
An avid chamber musician, Katherine is the Artistic Director and pianist for The Paramount Chamber Players (TPCP), one of the premier chamber music ensembles of the Appalachian Region and in its nineteenth concert season. Since taking her role with TPCP in 2020, Katherine has organized and performed on over two dozen concerts with the ensemble, including a professionally recorded and entirely virtual 2020–2021 concert season.
Katherine is deeply passionate about arts leadership and interdisciplinary collaboration, and her innovative projects have been sponsored by multiple grants from the University of Tennessee and Rackham College at the University of Michigan. Together with her colleagues at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, Katherine co-founded the Knoxville International Piano Festival and Competition, which attracted seventy-five young pianists and over two dozen guest artists in its inaugural year. In another recent project exploring the intersections of artistic media, Katherine commissioned seven new pieces of art from graduate and undergraduate visual art students, each new work created directly in response to a solo piano piece. Her work on interdisciplinary studies was featured in a lecture titled Painting Sound: A Case Study in Fostering Creativity and Collaboration Across the Arts presented at the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy.
In demand as a masterclass clinician and adjudicator, Katherine places great importance on encouraging and supporting the next generation of musicians. She recently presented masterclasses for the Blount County Keyboard Teachers Association, the Evelyn Miller Young Artist Series, and the Knoxville International Piano Festival, working with a diversity of age groups from elementary students up to collegiate artists. Katherine has also served on the jury for multiple competitions, including the Knoxville Symphony Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition, the Tennessee Music Teachers Association Piano Competitions, and the Alabama and Florida Music Teachers Association Piano Competitions.
Currently a Doctoral Candidate in Piano Performance at the University of Michigan, Katherine holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music and Northwestern University. She serves on the faculty of the University of Tennessee Knoxville College of Music, where she maintains a full studio of piano students and teaches courses in piano pedagogy, piano literature, and chamber music.