Katherine Charlton Calkins is chair of the music department at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, California, where she has taught full-time since 1974. During a sabbatical in 1990, she taught music history at the American Institute for Foreign Study at the University of London. She holds degrees in classical guitar performance and music history and she has performed on medieval gittern, Renaissance lute, and baroque guitar with her late first husband, Andrew Charlton, who was well known in the field of early music. In addition to performing early music, she has played percussion in the California University at Fullerton Wind Ensemble and toured Japan with the group.