Musicologist and harpsichordist Susan Erickson holds a B.A. degree from Carleton College, an M.Mus. degree with honors from Northwestern University, and a Ph.D. from Cornell University. She is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda. She began harpsichord studies with Dorothy Lane at Northwestern and continued with Louis Bagger in New York, having also worked with pianist Malcolm Bilson during her graduate studies at Cornell.

Three years after leaving Cornell she and her family relocated to Davis, California, and Dr. Erickson taught at the University of California for eight years, where she pioneered the University’s first Women in Music course. In 1983 she moved to Sydney, Australia, eventually accepting a tenured faculty position in musicology at the Sydney Conservatorium, which subsequently merged with the University of Sydney. While there she worked alongside her colleague Dr. Jane Morlet Hardie in developing the first undergraduate musicology major in Australia, a program of study which has since been followed in the U.S. In addition to teaching seminars in baroque music, women composers (also a first in Australia), and supervising graduate studies, Dr. Erickson served as a consultant in developing the early music program at the Conservatorium. While in Sydney she performed as a member of the Macquarie Chamber Players. In addition to performances of the standard baroque repertoire, the ensemble premiered commissioned pieces by contemporary Australian composers.

In 1993 Dr. Erickson left Australia to return to the United States. She resumed her career as harpsichordist and teacher in the greater Bay Area, as a member of the California Baroque Ensemble and the Capitol Chamber Players. She has also performed with the Sacramento Chamber Music Society and the Sacramento Philharmonic and has appeared as soloist with the Lodi Symphony. She has appeared twice with the Sacramento Bach Festival. She has continued her work as a musicologist, serving as Vice President with the Northern California Chapter of the American Musicological Society, and is in demand as a guest lecturer both in the United States and overseas. She continues to concentrate on her interests in baroque performance practice, baroque women composers, and most recently in the interdisciplinary field of music and literature, with conference appearances and publications having to do with music in the novels of Rebecca West.