Erica Muhl, Former President (2021-2023)

President Muhl

President Erica Muhl

Image by Kelly Davidson

Erica Muhl, DMA, an accomplished conductor and composer, scholar, educator, and administrator, joined Berklee following a distinguished 30-year career at the University of Southern California. 

A longtime tenured professor of composition at the USC Thornton School of Music, Muhl was tapped in 2012 to envision a new school at the university that would address the changing needs of 21st-century learners. The result was the USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation. Since its launch in 2013, the Academy has become widely recognized as one of the most innovative schools in higher education, celebrated for its unique, integrative educational model and remarkable student outcomes. As the academy's founding executive director and dean, Muhl developed the school’s vision, mission, and academic programs, positioning the academy at the intersection of the arts, technology, digital communications, and entrepreneurship, and forging new educational paradigms for the future. 

Throughout her career as a creative artist, scholar, teacher, and administrator, Muhl has remained committed to maintaining rigorous standards for academic excellence while seeking to forge new paradigms and models for higher education. She has been a catalyst for change in the field, in particular as a steady public advocate for multidisciplinary and integrative programs that nurture innovative thought through team- and project-based learning. She has presented talks and served as a panelist at national and international conferences, symposia, and seminars focused on the future of education and education institutions, including the Aspen Institute; South by Southwest.edu (SXSW.edu); Adobe MAX; and the Microsoft Summit, Learning in the Digital Age. 

In addition to her career in higher education, Muhl has maintained an international career as a composer and conductor of contemporary concert music. Her works have been commissioned, performed, and broadcast by such organizations as Minnesota Opera, New World Symphony, Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Italy's Orchestra della RAI, Venezuela’s National Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, the Arditti Quartet, Cuarteto Latinoamericano, National Public Radio, and leading schools and conservatories of music in the US and abroad. Her music has been featured at national and international festivals and competitions, including the Aspen Festival, the Ernest Bloch Festival, the International Festival of New Music in Caracas, the International Forum of New Music in Mexico City, the Festival Nuovi Spazi in Rome, and the International Percussion Competition in Luxembourg. She has received grants and awards from such organizations as the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Opera America, and was the recipient of the prestigious Whitaker Commissioning Prize. 

Muhl was born and raised in Los Angeles. She trained both as a composer and conductor, with much of her education completed in Europe. At age 16, she was invited to study with renowned teacher Nadia Boulanger at the American Conservatory in Paris. She subsequently completed graduate studies at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome and the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, and in 1991 completed her DMA at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music. Muhl has served as assistant conductor for Los Angeles Opera Theater, Seattle Opera, and the Pacific Northwest Wagner Festival’s complete Der Ring des Nibelungen, and has regularly conducted her own works, both in concert and on recordings. 

Muhl became the first female president of Berklee in July of 2021. Highlights of progress that took place under her leadership include:

  • Muhl entered Berklee at the height of the pandemic, navigating the institution to the close of a successful first year that included a number of key leadership hires, management of complex and evolving community safety and health protocols, and the launch of several major initiatives. 
  • A pioneering holistic approach to student care, the Student Experience Innovation Project, successfully launched in fall 2022. Now called the Berklee Bridge, the project resulted in a fully coordinated network of personalized student services, systems, and resources that allow for highly individualized care of our students, ranging across academic success, mental and physical well-being, financial services, accessibility services, and much more. It includes an innovative Student Success Advising model designed to resolve a wide array of student concerns.
  • The acquisition and renovation of the 12 Hemenway Street building, strategically located at the heart of Berklee’s Boston campus, to provide much needed additional housing for students, and new and fully accessible collaborative work and creative spaces for students and faculty. 
  • The expansion of Berklee's campus in Valencia, Spain, began in the spring of 2023 as the first stage in realizing the strategic potential of a new long-term agreement with the City of Arts and Sciences and the regional government of Valencia. The expansion increases instructional capacity by more than 40 percent, allowing for the development of new offerings that will align education and professional partnerships with both the strengths and needs of communities across Valencia, Spain, and the EU.