Benson was of Swedish descent. Born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, she spent her childhood in New Orleans, where she attended Metairie Park Country Day School, one of the first progressive schools in the South. Its emphasis on creativity encouraged her talents in music, painting and poetry.
At sixteen, she studied with pianist-composer Percy Grainger at Interlochen's Summer Music Camp. At seventeen, she attended Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts, studying with Boris Godowsky and Melville Smith. It was here she first heard a clavichord, where Erwin Bodky, a faculty member, played several preludes and fugues by J. S. Bach.
Transcription of a clavichord record, by Joan Benson (Bridge S 2250). It was a "recommended recording of the year" (1973) by the Saturday Review. This recording is on clavichords by Thomas Goff of England and Jacobus Verwolf of the Netherlands. The music was composed by Dietrich Ewald von Grotthuß [de] (1751–1786)
Clavichord Music of Johann Kuhnau and C. P. E. Bach (Focus Recordings, Peter Nothnagel, Early Music Institute, Indiana University School of Music, cassette, 1987[7] and CD, 1996)[8]
"The Effect of Clavichord Technique on the Fortepiano", Internationaler Joseph Haydn Kongress, Wien, 1982, G. Henle Publishing House, Munich (1986)[11]
"The Clavichord in 20th-Century America", in Livro de Homenagem a Macario Santiago Kastner, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon (1992)[11]
"Clavichord Technique in the Mid-Twentieth Century", Proceedings of the International Clavichord Symposium, Magnano, 9–11 September 1993, Istituto per I Beni Musicali in Piemonte, Turin (1994)[12]
"Clavichord Perspectives from Goethe to Pound", De Clavicordio VI, The International Centre for Clavichord Studies, Musica Antica a Magnano, Italy (2004)[13]
"Studying with Macario Santiago Kastner a Half-Century Ago", De Clavicordio VIII, The Clavichord on the Iberian Peninsula, The International Centre for Clavichord Studies, Musica Antica a Magnano, Italy (2008)[14]
"The Interplay of Clavichord and Piano", De Clavicordio XI, The International Centre for Clavichord Studies, Musica Antica a Magnano, Italy (2014)[15]
"Teaching the Clavichord in Our Electronic World", De Clavicordio XII, The International Centre for Clavichord Studies, Musica Antica a Magnano, Italy (2015), published 2017.