Benson's lasting impact on music education recognized

For University of Nebraska–Lincoln alumna Karen Benson, receiving the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts Alumni Achievement Award in Music was deeply meaningful.

“It’s quite an honor,” Benson said. “Not anything I was expecting or pursuing, but I’m very pleased. It is a great honor to be recognized.”

Benson, who earned her Bachelor of Music Education degree in 1987 and a Master of Music in 1995 from the Glenn Korff School of Music, has spent her career shaping music education in Nebraska and beyond. A longtime elementary music teacher, nationally respected educator and leader in the American Orff-Schulwerk Association, Benson has dedicated her life to helping children—and the teachers who serve them—experience music through active, joyful engagement.

As she returned to campus to receive the award, she was excited to visit with current students.

“That is the highlight of the weekend just to be in front of kids, be in front of the next generation of music educators. That’s going to be a lot of fun,” she said.

Originally from Arlington, Nebraska, Benson first came to the University of Nebraska–Lincoln with a different career path in mind.

“I thought I would be a band director,” she said.

A saxophonist, Benson was drawn to the university, in part, because of the opportunity to join the Cornhusker Marching Band. She had also been taking saxophone lessons with Professor Emeritus Robert Fought.

“My brother had gone here,” she said. “My sisters had gone to Wayne State, but I had been taking saxophone lessons from Dr. Robert Fought and the marching band—well, I thought if I can get into that, that’s where I’m going to go.”

At UNL, she performed in marching band, symphonic band, concert band, jazz ensembles and small combos.

“Just being around that diverse group of people,” she said. “It wasn’t just all marching band friends. I had friends in a lot of different arenas.”

A turning point came during an elementary music methods course, when Benson volunteered to teach a lesson to sixth graders at McPhee Elementary in Lincoln.

“I had so much fun doing that,” she said. “I thought, ‘Oh my goodness, I could get paid to do this with kids on a regular basis. This might be something worth looking into.’”

Her student teaching confirmed it.

“I love children and their natural way of making music,” she said. “Music is a way to connect with kids. We’re all born as musicians, and if you can nurture that musicianship, children can do incredible things.”

While teaching in the Millard Public Schools for most of her career—primarily at Cody Elementary and for several years at Neihardt Elementary—she worked to create opportunities for students.

“I felt like I was making a difference for those kids because I was able to offer them some things they might not have gotten otherwise like singing in an elementary choir. Not a lot of my students had that opportunity outside of school,” she said. “We would have a music club where we’d learn how to play guitars or whatever. I tried, over my career, to offer them multiple opportunities that might not have been available to them otherwise.”

Benson’s philosophy of active, student-centered music making found its perfect match in Orff Schulwerk.

“Orff Schulwerk is an approach to music education that involves learning through active music making,” Benson said.

She was first introduced to Orff Schulwerk in college, but it wasn’t until her first teaching job in suburban Chicago that the approach truly transformed her life. She attended the American Orff-Schulwerk Association (AOSA) national conference in Chicago.

“I would say it was life-changing,” she said. “To be with a group of people learning in this way and being there with my eyes wide open to it.”

She immediately began formal training, completing Level I, II and III Orff Schulwerk Teacher Education courses over the next three summers.

“By that time, I knew this was how I was supposed to teach,” she said.

When Benson returned to Nebraska, she became active in the Great Plains Orff Chapter and later completed an apprenticeship process to become a teacher educator. Since around 2000, she has taught graduate-level Orff Schulwerk courses not only at UNL but around the country.

Her involvement with AOSA continued to grow. She served on the board of trustees, then as vice president and president. Since 2018, she has served as the organization’s professional development director, overseeing teacher educators, approving courses, organizing apprenticeship programs and helping lead professional development opportunities nationwide.

“It’s a little bit of everything,” Benson said.

What has kept her involved all these years is the same thing that first drew her in.

“It is so fun and interactive, and it’s just a nurturing way to learn,” she said. “That continues to nurture us as we utilize it with other adults and with children.”

Benson credits Orff Schulwerk with elevating her own teaching.

“As soon as I started to incorporate things that I learned in Orff Schulwerk, it just opened up a level of teaching that I didn’t know I was capable of,” she said.

Equally important was the community it created.

“You’re kind of on an island when you’re the only music teacher in a building,” she said. “To have those professional development opportunities to connect with other music educators were always very important.”

That spirit of collaboration and mentorship continues through her work at UNL, where she has taught in summer programs for more than 30 years.

“The best part is children that have had a teacher who has come and learned with me or the program have benefited,” she said

For Benson, music education is about far more than teaching notes and rhythms.

“Music, just like the other fine arts, is what makes us human,” she said. “And in this day and age, the more human we can be, the better.”

Music gives some students a reason to come to school.

“That’s why some kids go to school,” Benson said. “It’s because of their music experience or their music teacher. You’re teaching children through music. It’s not that we’re just teaching kids music. We are teaching people through the art of making music together.”

As Benson reflects on her decades-long relationship with Nebraska, she returns to one lasting memory—the people.

“The variety of experiences and the people associated with those experiences,” she said.

Seeing the impact of her work has been gratifying.

“When I look at the local music educators that I get to see in action, and see some of the amazing things they're doing, and know that I played a very small part in that,” she said. “But to see them taking that, implementing it and doing amazing things with their students makes me very pleased.