As a classical guitarist, Katherine Charlton Calkins found that she enjoyed playing ensemble music better than performing as a soloist. Along with her late first husband, Andrew Charlton, she spent many years performing regularly on the medieval gittern, the Renaissance lute, vihuela, and the baroque guitar. The two toured and performed in Southern France and Tuscany with the early music grou, Li Troubador, led by Gloria Ramsey.
Calkins' first book, Rock Music Styles: A History was published in 1990 and she continues to update the material in new editions. Having taught music appreciation for many years, she was hired by McGraw-Hill as the head writer for a new music appreciation text, Experience Music, which is now out in its second edition as a 2009 publication. She took a sabbatical in 2007/2008 to do a study of the lives and music of a selected group of women composers, and returned to both teaching and work as chair of the Mt. SAC Music Department in the fall of 2008.