Joan Benson (October 9, 1925 – January 1, 2020) was an American keyboard player who specialized in the clavichord and fortepiano.

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.

Educated at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (Bachelor of Music, Master of Music (1951) and Indiana University School of Music (1953) studying under Anis Fuleihan, she received instruction in Europe from Edwin Fischer, Guido Agosti, Olivier Messiaen, Viola Thern, Fritz Neumeyer [de; fr; sv], Ruggero Gerlin, and Macário Santiago Kastner [de] before returning to the United States in 1960 to pursue dual careers as a concert keyboardist and university professor.

[1][2] She debuted on the clavichord at the Carmel Bach Festival in 1963[1] and went on to perform at many concerts in the United States, Europe, and the Far East.