Born in Venezuela and raised in Minnesota, Erika Koski’s dream of being a competitive gymnast unfortunately ended due to multiple injuries throughout her childhood. However, besides being a gifted athlete, Koski was also a musician. Her love of music allowed her to pivot to a career in professional audio production.
“Music and sound have been a huge part of my life for as long as I can remember,” said Koski, who grew up taking guitar and piano lessons, who then eventually started playing the alto saxophone. “After experimenting with music production, I fell in love with recording and mixing.”
Koski received her high school diploma from the Perpich Center of Arts Education music program, where she had the opportunity to run live sound for performances and record compositions in the studio.
“Those experiences led me to pursue a career in audio,” Koski said. “After researching many different audio engineering programs, I chose The Conservatory of Recording Arts & Sciences because of its well-rounded audio courses and internship program.”
In the beginning during her time at CRAS, Koski was most interested in recording and mixing music. But as soon as she started studying post-production and game audio at CRAS, she instantly knew that’s what she wanted to do.
“I graduated from CRAS in June 2019, and it was the perfect starting point for my career,” Koski said. “I graduated with a well-rounded knowledge of audio and some awesome connections.”
Koski completed her mandatory internship at Monkeyland Audio in Glendale, California. and eventually got hired there. After some time at Monkeyland, she took an opportunity at Reel Foley Sound in Costa Mesa, California, which is where she currently works as a Foley mixer with some outstanding credits to her name.
“After my CRAS internship hours were completed, there wasn’t a job opening for me, but I continued with my intern duties whenever I had time away from my freelance job at Formosa Interactive,” Koski explained. “Although I was most interested in sound design, I shadowed people in all areas of post. During that time, I found Foley, which I ended up falling in love with. Staying open minded to other positions and being dedicated to getting more experience was the key in being ready when a position opened up.”
Some of Koski’s credits include Only Murders in the Building (Foley mixer), Batwoman (Foley mixer), Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me (Foley mixer), Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (Foley mixer), Riverdale (Foley Mixer), Die Hart (Foley mixer), Call of Duty: Vanguard (voiceover recording engineer), and Ghost of Tsushima (assistant VO recording engineer).
Koski concluded saying that an education based in core fundamentals and industry expectations is necessary to succeed in this business and said, “CRAS will give you all the tools you need to thrive in your audio career, but it’s up to you to take advantage of those tools and learn everything you can during your time there.”
The Conservatory of Recording Arts & Sciences www.cras.edu