Erica Muhl was named as only the fourth president in the 75-year history of the Berklee College of Music in Boston. When she takes office next July, Dr. Muhl will be the first woman to lead the college.
In accepting the appointment, Dr. Muhl said “I am deeply honored by your faith in my ability to continue to grow Berklee College’s mission, and to provide unprecedented and unrivaled learning and professional experiences across the spectrum of music, the arts, technology, and creative entrepreneurship.”
Berklee College of Music enrolls nearly 6,500 undergraduate students and more than 500 graduate students, according to the latest figures supplied to the U.S. Department of Education. Women make up 41 percent of the undergraduate student body.
Dr. Muhl comes to Berklee College after a distinguished 30-year career at the University of Southern California, where she was dean and founding executive director of the Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation. Earlier, Dr. Muhl was associate dean of the Thornton School of Music at the university. She has been a professor of composition with tenure since 1990.
A native of Los Angeles, Dr. Muhl was invited to study at the American Conservatory in Paris when she was only 16 years old. After returning to California to earn a bachelor’s degree in music, she went to Europe for graduate studies at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome and the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena. In 1991, she earned a doctor of musical arts degree at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music.