Katherine Rhoda

About the Artist

Katherine is the doyenne of the whimsical world of vintage fretless zithers. The early 1900s saw a flood of musical inventions, some ridiculous, some sublime, all marketed as the ultimate in DIY music making. Katherine plays the Marxophone, violin-guitar, Phonoharp No. 1, harpeleik, dolceola, and more from her large collection.

She composes evocative new music for these instruments and crafts creative arrangements of traditional material and obscure covers. Katherine sings in a wonderfully rich and expressive voice, and also plays hammered dulcimer, accordion, guitar, and more.

Performance credits include the New England Folk Festival, the New York Folk Music Society, and the famous Caffe Lena. As Steve Suffet (the Old Fashioned Folksinger of New York City) says: “As a performer, Katherine Rhoda is talented, knowledgeable, and engaging. She can bring an audience to tears or leave them smiling, rally them to a cause or get them to just chill out, all with her choice of songs, her remarkable voice, her tasteful instrumental accompaniments, and her persona, which at the same time can be both playful and dignified. In short, Katherine Rhoda exemplifies what folk music should be all about.”

In addition to general concerts, Katherine offers historical presentations about fretless zithers and presentations of songs of women's suffrage and vintage Grange songs.