MUSE • Musicians United for Social Equity

Biography

Erika Ji is a cross-genre composer-storyteller who loves soaring melodies, dream worlds, and stories that challenge our preconceptions about what is true, good, right, or worth wanting. Her work has been featured Off-Broadway and around the world at Lincoln Center, the Public Theater, the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, and the Nadia Boulanger Institute.

Recent projects include VISARE (dystopian circus fantasia, New Voices Project Winner 2021, Vivace Award Nomination 2021), Yoko’s Husband’s Killer’s Japanese Wife, Gloria (5th Avenue Theatre First Draft Commission 2021, Civilians R&D Group 2022, O’Neill Semifinalist 2023), [untitled hat project] (tiny immersive experience at an eclectic hatmaker’s studio, NYFA grant recipient), and music direction for new works like ship-wide immersive experience Scarlet Night.

As a conductor, pianist, and vocalist, Erika has performed on national TV for CBS Sunday Morning, on Broadway with Kimberly Akimbo, and at the Warfield Theatre in San Francisco.

The proud daughter of Chinese immigrants, Erika grew up in California, studied computer science and philosophy at Stanford University, organized the Viennese Ball in San Francisco, and built products at Dropbox before deciding to follow the music. MFA: NYU Tisch.