Alison DeSimone (Assistant Professor of Musicology, University of Missouri-Kansas City) specializes in music of the late Baroque period, with a focus on early eighteenth-century opera. She cultivates particular interest in the history of opera singers and singing practices of the early modern era, as well as the music of George Frideric Handel. She is currently working on two book projects: the first, a co-edited essay collection on Music, Theatre, and the Benefit Concert in Britain, 1660-1800; and the second, a monograph on musico-theatrical miscellany and its effects on the creation of celebrity and cultural taste in early eighteenth-century London.