Faculty and Staff
Sarah B. Patrick
Senior Manager of Strategic Initiatives
Sarah B. Patrick is the senior manager of strategic initiatives for BerkleeICE and the Office of Global Strategy and Innovation. She has forged her career in a myriad of creative and media industries, braiding together project management, program design, and strategic planning. Marrying her right-brained creativity with left-brained actuation, Patrick has created educational programing for the Berkshire International Film Festival and collaborated on cultural engagement with the American Repertory Theater as they mounted the Tony-winning musical Porgy & Bess. She graduated from New York University's Gallatin School in 2008 with a degree in cinema studies, philosophy, and visual arts.
Tonya Butler
Chair, Music Business/Management
Tonya Butler is the chair of the Music Business/Management Department at Berklee, the first woman to hold a leadership position in that department. A seasoned veteran of the music business, Butler has more than 14 years of experience as an entertainment attorney and record label executive working for various major and independent record companies, music publishers, and film studios, including Rhino Records, Pioneer Entertainment, and MGM Music.
A native of Los Angeles, Butler is an award-winning motivational speaker, Toastmaster, and author of the self-published career guide, The Music Business Is Corrupt, or Maybe You Just Can’t Sing? She is a strong advocate for artists' rights and entrepreneurship education, having served two terms on the Recording Academy’s board of governors and three terms on the executive board of the Music and Entertainment Industry Educators Association.
Her 15 years of undergraduate- and graduate-level teaching experience includes the Los Angeles Film School, Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), the University of Memphis, and the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law. She has a juris doctorate from California Western School of Law and a Master of Laws in entertainment and media from Southwestern University School of Law/Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, England.
Read Tonya Butler's faculty biography.
Kimberly Dawson
Assistant Professor
For over 20 years, Kimberly Dawson has worked in the creative sector as an artist, educator, administrator, and organizational leader. She has extensive experience in business development and nonprofit management. Her career has taken her to Los Angeles, California; New York, New York; Santa Fe, New Mexico; and back to her hometown of Boston, Massachusetts. Her work has been recognized by the President's Committee of the Arts and Humanities, the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. She was also recognized as a Citizen Artist Scholar at the Aspen Ideas Festival. She holds a B.F.A. from Boston University and a master's degree in education from Harvard University.
Maria Finkelmeier
Associate Professor
Maria Finkelmeier believes that an artist’s mind is deeply connected to innovation. Named a “one-woman dynamo” by the Boston Globe, and Boston’s Best 2018 "Creative Catalyst” by the Improper Bostonian, Maria is a percussionist, composer, educator, and public artist. She is owner of MF Dynamics, an experimental studio creating large-scale performative art works in public spaces and multimedia experiences at art and concert venues, and founder and director of Kadence Arts, a non-profit dedicated to building an ecosystem of art making and learning through percussion music.
Her work has been supported and acknowledged by the Boston Foundation, New England Foundation for the Arts, Massachusetts Cultural Council, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and the Brother Thomas Fellowship, and her projects have been presented at unexpected spaces, such as Fenway Park’s Green Monster, Treehotel in Harads, Sweden, the Boston Center for the Arts’ historic Cyclorama, the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, Boston’s Hatch Memorial Shell, Cincinnati’s Roebling Bridge, and the Frost Ice Bar. In addition to her duties at Berklee she guest presents at conservatories and universities throughout the United States and Europe.
Read Maira Finkelmeier's profile for Career Jam.
Todd Gardner
Associate Professor
Todd Gardner has spent over 20 years as a musician, consultant, litigator, mediator, facilitator, lecturer, and problem-solver in contexts as varied as contracts, environmental and health law, entertainment law, after-school arts programs for at-risk youth, civil and criminal litigation, interagency negotiations, workplace and land use conflicts, and business development. He has worked as an official nongovernmental organization observer at the United Nations Framework Climate Change Convention in Copenhagen, Denmark. In addition, Gardner is the drummer for the JD Moffat Quartet.
Read Todd Gardner's full faculty biography.
George Howard
Professor
George Howard is an associate professor of music business/management at Berklee College of Music and Brown University, and the founder of GHS, a strategic consulting firm that advises a wide range of clients on how to integrate technology with strategy in order to increase brand awareness and revenue through innovation, social media, digital platforms, and strategic partnerships. A partial list of clients includes Intel, National Public Radio, CVS Pharmacy, and Alticor/Amway.
Additionally, Howard is the cofounder of Music Audience Exchange, which uses technology to redefine the fundamental structure of brand/artist relationships. He is the former president of Rykodisc, the world’s largest independent record label, and cofounder of TuneCore, the world’s largest independent digital music distributor. Howard is a columnist for Forbes, and a frequent contributor to the New York Times and numerous other publications.
Read George Howard's faculty biography.
Jennifer Hruska
Assistant Professor
Jennifer Hruska brings a diverse set of skills and experience to Berklee students as a musician, electronic instrument designer and business entrepreneur. Jennifer's early career was as a sound designer for Kurzweil Music Systems, designing their award-winning K2000 series of music synthesizers and working with such industry greats as Ray Kurzweil, Bob Moog, Robert Chidlaw, and Hal Chamberlain.
Later, Jennifer founded and operated SONiVOX, an audio technology company producing software midi synthesizers, virtual instruments, and sample libraries for pro-audio software products and embedded consumer products. SONiVOX technology reached hundreds of millions of customers when its products were embedded in Google, Motorola, Samsung, and other global branded mobile devices. In 2012 Jennifer sold SONiVOX to inMusic Brands, where she served as vice president of software engineering and content development for the company's iconic brands Akai Professional, M-Audio, Alesis, AIR Music Technology, and others. Jennifer left inMusic in 2016 to cofound 2getheraudio, makers of professional software synthesizers and effects plugins for musicians and audio professionals.
Read Jennifer Hruska's full faculty biography.
Andrea Johnson
Associate Professor
Andrea “Ani” Johnson, associate professor of music business/management, is an international lecturer and consultant in music licensing, marketing, and strategic startups. She's shared her expertise on CNN's The Lead, at MIDEM, InHolland University, and Berklee Valencia, and in her article “What’s Up with MXSup’s,” published in the MEIEA Journal and Music Business Journal. Previously, she worked with Chris Blackwell at Palm Pictures/Rykodisc and licensed over 30 albums for artists including Elton John, Parliament-Funkadelic, and Fleetwood Mac. Her work with Gloria Estefan included restructuring financial systems and managing royalties for a Sony Music venture.
On campus, Ani is faculty advisor to the Music Business Club, a member of the Equity Partner Program, and a member of the Female Faculty Alliance, which advocates for social justice issues on and off campus.
She serves as faculty support, in conjunction with George Howard, to the student teams developing RAIDAR, Berklee’s music licensing platform, and also teaches the RAIDAR blockchain practicum. Built by students, for students, the platform hosts music from Berklee students, alumni and faculty, and allows them to license it for placement in films, ads, video games, and other media. Her music supervision company MonoMyth Media hires Berklee interns as music concierges to pitch and place music from the RAIDAR catalog in local productions.
Check out Ani’s recent interview with The Buttonwood Tree, “Metallica Producer Bob Rock Sells Rights," and her shout-out in Medium from Amanda Montgomery, president of the Music Business Club. Follow Ani on Twitter and LinkedIn.