Newton resident Erica Muhl began making history at Berklee College of Music twenty months ago, when she became its first woman president. Since then, the distinguished conductor-composer has continued to expand musical horizons for Berklee students and graduates. Her inauguration ceremony, long delated by Covid, took place on Tuesday morning at the MGM Music Hall.
Born and educated in Los Angeles, Erica Muhl began her lifelong musical journey at the age of three, when she started taking violin lessons on a miniature instrument. At ten, she chose the piano — “which I loved.” And at thirteen, she composed her first piece to oblige a friend who thought “it would be fun” if her friend sang and Erica accompanied her on the piano, performing Erica’s music. “It was an incredibly exciting moment to perform a composition I wrote.” In high school, Erica played music with both classical and jazz musicians.
Graduating from high school at sixteen, Erica went to Paris to study composition with Nadia Boulanger, a conductor and music teacher of some of the leading composers and musicians of the twentieth century. Mme. Boulanger “brought out the best in students,” Erica said, and it marked the beginning of her multi-continental career. After she was awarded her Bachelor of Music Degree from California State University, she went to Italy to begin her graduate work and earned her doctorate in music at the University of Southern California. “Moving back and forth between the US and Europe formed who I am today,” she says, noting that “I’ve developed a lot of relationships around the world.“
Before her Berklee appointment, Erica Muhl was a tenured professor of composition at USC’s Thornton School of Music. In 2012, she helped to develop the Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation – considered a pioneer in joining together arts, technology, digital communications, and entrepreneurship, attracting students from across the globe. Having spent thirty years exploring, expanding, and implementing new programs at USC, Erica Muhl has come to Berklee College of Music to join forces with Greater Boston’s dynamic musical community.
At Berklee, Erica Muhl has expanded opportunities for students from the United States and abroad. “We’re a very diverse community at Berklee, both students and faculty,” she says. She estimates that about one-third of the student body is from other countries. Martin J. Mannion, chair of Berklee’s Board of Trustees, credits her with having “implemented bold new programs and initiatives to enhance the student experience while also advancing Berklee as a world-class leader in performing arts education.” Among her accomplishments is the expansion of Berklee’s Valencia, Spain campus, offering programs for the spring and fall semesters. And, in recognition of market forces, Berklee offers programs for musicians and dancers in media centers where commercials are made. Berklee is the first college to offer a three-year BA in Music. Currently, Erica Muhl is working on a plan to incorporate “five pillars” in Berklee’s planning process:
- Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: Values, Culture, and Campus Climate
- Affordability, and the Lifelong Value of a Berklee Degree
- Curricular and Programmatic Innovation
- Global Strategy, Partners and Presence
- The Higher Education Infrastructure of the Future
Inaugural festivities began at Boston Symphony Hall on Monday, April 3rd with several of her compositions, among them “Burn the Box,” for large orchestra; “Elegy: Disinherited Souls,” for string orchestra, which was commissioned by Berlin and Dresden to mark the Shoah; and a reimagined version of her “Variations for Piano and Orchestra.” The music was performed by the Berklee Inauguration Symphony Orchestra, a collaborative ensemble of student, faculty, and staff performers from the College and the Conservatory.
Her formal inauguration ceremony was held at the MGM Music Hall on Tuesday morning. Reflecting Dr. Muhl’s promotion of global music, Sona Jobarteh, a musical pioneering woman from The Gambia, was the keynote speaker and recipient of an honorary doctorate from Berklee.
When she accepted Berklee’s presidency, her search for a home focused on Newton because “it was big and has different areas to choose from. This is where I want to be.” And, of Berklee and the Boston area, Erica Muhl said, “What makes professional music so alive is that there are so many people who studied music, drive musical organizations and have different kinds of appreciation.”
