Katherine K. Preston (née Imfeld, born December 7, 1950) is an American musicologist and educator. She taught on the faculty of the College of William & Mary from 1989 until 2018 when she retired and was named a professor emerita. She has authored biographies on composers Scott Joplin and George Frederick Bristow as well as books on traveling musicians and opera troupes in the United States during the 19th century. According to the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, she is considered an authority on the music of early America and 19th century America.[1]