Isaí Jess Muñoz

Isaí Jess Muñoz serves as Boston Conservatory at Berklee’s interim dean of music. In this role, Muñoz directs artistic planning and strategy for the Music Division, supports its faculty and students, and works closely with faculty and administration to develop and refine the curriculum.

He joined the Conservatory in 2022 as chair of voice, overseeing and supporting all curricula and artistic programming for voice, opera, vocal pedagogy, and the choral arts. As chair, Muñoz drove several key initiatives, including an innovative partnership with Boston Lyric Opera that launched the Conservatory’s new Opera Innovators Series and brought several renowned professionals to campus, including Anne Bogart, Karen Slack, Stephen Powell, Yuval Sharon, and Martin Katz, to name a few. 

In 2021, he was named president-elect of the National Opera Association (NOA), and will assume the role of president in 2024. He previously served as NOA’s vice president for conferences.

Muñoz has collaborated with some of the world’s leading ensembles, including the Israel Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, American Symphony Orchestra, Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center, Verbier Festival (Switzerland), New York City Opera, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. 

A champion for contemporary and underrepresented works, the tenor is featured on numerous audio recordings available on the Naxos, Albany, Sony Classical, and Decca Gold labels. His latest solo album, Visca L'Amor: Catalan Art Songs of the XX and XXI Centuries (Bridge Records/Naxos, 2021), is a BBC Music Magazine five-star honoree.

For teaching and interdisciplinary activities, Muñoz has been recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts, National Association of Teachers of Singing, American Prize, National Foundation for the Advancement of Artists, and the Grace Farms Foundation. From 2015–2021, he chaired the NOA’s Sacred in Opera Initiative, which explores the interplay between music-drama and the ideologies of world religions. His students appear in opera houses throughout the United States and abroad, on Broadway and with national companies, and on major recording labels including Sony, RCA, and Atlantic.

Muñoz is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Manhattan School of Music, and Stony Brook University, and has formerly served on faculty at the University of Delaware and Indiana Wesleyan University. As a guest lecturer and clinician, Muñoz appears with universities and performance programs worldwide. Muñoz, his wife, and three children divide their time between Boston and New York City.