Born and raised in Southern California, Eric grew up in a very musical environment listening to his father play the piano (starting while he was in the womb) and studying piano as a young child before finding the guitar when he was a teenager. Eric was recognized for his talent when he was selected by Pasadena City College guitar teacher Stephen Jones to receive state paid lessons from John Dearman of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet.

 

In 2004 Eric completed his Bachelor of Music degree from California State University Northridge, having the privilege to study with Ron Purcell, Greg Newton and Steven Thachuk and after living in Japan for a year as an English teacher, he returned to CSUN and earned his Masters in Music. He has received numerous scholarships and awards for his compositions and performances including a graduate scholarship for "Outstanding Composition Student" by his mentor, the world renowned composer Liviu Marinescu. He was also elected into the National Music Honor Society, Pi Kappa Lambda in 2003 and is even a published author in a grammar text book "The Least You Should Know about English" by Paige Wilson and Teresa Ferster Glazier.

 

Eric worked at Alfred Music Publishing for three years and earned the Decrescendo award for his role in saving the company more money than any other department in his work to convert printed books to .pdf documents for the digital press. Eric’s tireless dedication to restore the old engravings of the masters earned praise around the country when letters (and cookies!) were sent to Alfred from grateful customers thanking him for the work.

 

His band, The Celtic Camerata was voted No.1 jam band by Big Benny's Board Shop and No. 1 bar band by the Yodeler in his hometown: Wrightwood, CA.