Susan Muscarella

Artist-educator and arts administrator Susan Muscarella is the founding president emerita of the California Jazz Conservatory, the only music conservatory in the country solely devoted to the study and performance of jazz and related styles of music. 

Prior to founding the California Jazz Conservatory, pianist Muscarella led her own groups and was also a member of Mel Martin’s innovative group “Listen.” Performances of note include Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz on NPR, Yoshi’s, Keystone Korner, Great American Music Hall and the Lighthouse as well as the Monterey, Berkeley, and Concord Jazz Festivals. She has two solo recordings: “Rainflowers” and “Madder Music, Stronger Wine” and is writing a book titled “Foundational Principles of Modern Jazz Piano” scheduled for publication later this year

From 1975-1989, Muscarella served as Associate Director and then Director of the UC Jazz Ensembles program, a position, laying the groundwork her for her role as founding president of the California Jazz Conservatory from1997-2023.

Muscarella is a former member of Chamber Music America’s Board of Directors. She was the recipient of a 2008 “A Team” Award from the Jazz Journalists Association, recipient of the 2018 Benjamin Ide Wheeler Award, panelist at the 2019 Jazz Congress and inducted into the 2023 DownBeat Jazz Education Hall of Fame. This year, she received the Margot Power Award for Excellence in Education from the Berkeley Piano Club.

Muscarella earned a PhD in Musicology from the University of Évora in Portugal and a Bachelor of Arts in Music Composition from UC Berkeley. Currently, she teaches jazz piano and is on the faculty of the Jazzschool. Muscarella lives in Berkeley with her husband Robert Cole and their beloved chipoodle, Lucy.