Kathrin M. Menzel studied musicology and book studies in Erlangen and Madrid. During her studies, she worked at the Bruno Stäblein Archive and the musicological library of the Erlangen-Nuremberg University Library. She obtained her Magister Artium with a thesis on solo viol music in the Netherlands around 1700, followed by freelance work at the Art and Cultural Education Centre of the Museums in Nuremberg for the Germanic National Museum in the department of historical musical instruments. In the winter semester 2006/07 she received a lectureship for music research at the Nuremberg University of Music.
At the SNF/KTI research projects on string instruments around 1500 at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (2011-2015) she investigated the organological aspects of early viole da gamba as a research assistant. In 2016-2017 she led the research project on viola bastarda.
Her research interests are in the field of organology, music aesthetics and performance in an interdisciplinary approach with a focus on viola da gamba instruments.
Since 2007 Kathrin M. Menzel has been an assistant at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis / FHNW as curator of the collection of historical musical instruments. She was head of the microfilm archive of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis from 2007 to 2019. Since 2017, she has been a lecturer in instrumentology at the Institut Klassik / Hochschule für Musik FHNW and has since curated its instrument collection.
Kathrin M. Menzel has been president of the Society of Friends of Ancient Musical Instruments since 2018 and co-editor of the organological journal Glareana.
Portrait of the collection on SRF radio with Prof. Mechthild Karkow and Kathrin M. Menzel: "Hochspezialisiert ist halb gewonnen: Schola Cantorum Basiliensis", a contribution by Jenny Berg, 08.02.2018.