Balensuela was awarded the Vincent H. Duckles Award from the Music Library Association for best book-length bibliography for Music Theory from Boethius to Zarlino: A Bibliography and Guide (co-authored with David Russell Williams, 2007). His other works on early music theory include a new edition and translation of Ars cantus mensurabilis mensurata per modos iuris (1994) and articles in Grove Music Online, Acta Musicologica, and The Journal of Musicological Research.

His research on jazz, sheet music, and dance includes articles in The Journal of Jazz Studies, Fontes artis musicae, and The Routledge Companion to Popular Music and Humor.

His edited volume, The Norton Guide to Teaching Music History was granted the 2020 Teaching Award from the American Musicological Society for an exceptional pedagogical resource. He was the founding editor of The Journal of Music History Pedagogy (2010). His articles on pedagogy have appeared in Vitalizing Music History Teaching (2010) and the journal Musica Docta. He has served as a member of the International Musicological Society’s Study Group on the Transmission of Knowledge as a Primary Aim in Music Education.

He has presented papers at meetings of the American Musicological Society, Medieval Academy of America, the International Congress of Medieval Canon Law, the International Musicological Society, the College Music Society, and the International Medieval Studies Conference (Kalamazoo).

He earned a BM from the Juilliard School (1979) where he studied saxophone with Joe Allard, MMs in both music history and woodwind performance from Bowling Green State University (1985), and a PhD in musicology from Indiana University where he studied with Dr. Thomas J. Mathiesen (1993). He has also taught at the University of Oklahoma, Indiana University, Indiana State University, and Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College.

Awards and grants include: John Price Durban Distinguished Professor (2003-5), Joan W. Battey Faculty Fellowship (2205-8), and Susan B. Smith Faculty Fellowship (2011-14); he has been named an Accomplished Graduate of Bowling Green State University (2011).