kate van orden is an american musicologist and bassoonist, currently dwight p. robinson jr. professor of music at harvard university. she worked at the university of california, berkeley, from 1997 until moving to harvard in 2013. she was editor-in-chief of the journal of the american musicological society from 2008 to 2010, and currently serves on the editorial boards of "early music history", "saggiatore musicale", "oxford bibliographies", and "the new cultural history of music". her principal research interest is the french chanson, on which she has written two books.