A native of Indiana, Eric received his Bachelor of Music Education degree from Northwestern University and his Master of Music degree from DePaul University. He was a student of the late Arnold Jacobs and Robert Rusk. He has a wide variety of musical experience both in the Chicagoland area and in California, where he had lived with his wife Colleen and their two Labradors, Maggie and Hanna, for over twelve years.
He was a member of the Evanston and Waukegan Symphonies, the Lakeside Band, the Northwest Indiana Symphony and the Illinois Philharmonic, and is a founding member of the famed Lakeshore Brass. While in California he was in the San Jose Wind Symphony, the Redwood Symphony, and the Livermore Opera Orchestra and had performed with the now defunct Sacramento Symphony.