Erin Hackel is an Associate Professor at the University of Colorado Denver. Her award-winning a cappella groups, MIX and Lark, have traveled across the United States and Europe competing and performing.  Both groups have been BOSS and SOJAM champions, are recipients of multiple performance awards, and have won multiple Contemporary A cappella Recording awards (CARAS). MIX and Lark have been praised for their innovation and professionalism and have been singled out for their boundary changing work in collegiate a cappella. Hackel’s ensembles have collaborated with the Swingle Singers, headlined the National A Cappella Convention, and won the Most Innovative Group award at the Aarhus Vocal Festival in Aarhus, Denmark. 

Hackel’s research and publication history centers on the lives of female composers and performers. Her original research on Norwegian musicians Agathe Backer Grøndahl and Nina Grieg has appeared in articles in the Journal of Singing, and her work on contemporary vocalists Dame Vera Lynn and Yvette Guilbert has appeared in the journal Women in Music. Hackel maintains an active profile as a presenter of workshops and classes at vocal festivals around the country on healthy contemporary singing, collaborative arranging techniques for vocal ensembles, and demystifying the pedagogy of modern singing styles.