Eric Myers Bio - China, upstate NY and California..

Eric has been performing music most of his life. Born and raised in the small town of Olean, NY, Eric played percussion in the pit orchestra of the Olean Community Theatre, accompanied the Olean High School Chorus on piano and played drums in a rock band with friends. He was the only senior in his graduating class to receive the John Phillip Sousa Band Award in 1995.

After high school, Eric attended Bard College where he studied music performance and composition with Luis Garcia-Renart, Ben Boretz and Joan Tower, among others. While at Bard, Eric was also an avid student of Chinese language and literature and took the subject as a second major. His senior projects at Bard consisted of two piano recitals where his own compositions, Water Pressure and One of Many, were premiered. In addition to musical works, he translated several Chapters of the well-known novel Golden Age by the modern Chinese author Wang Xiaobo into English.

After college, Eric spent several months in China teaching English as a second language to youngsters while making friends and absorbing China’s rich cultural and musical heritage. Eric sites his experience in China as inspiration for his musical compositions. Upon returning to the United States he worked as a teacher’s aide at a school for children with special needs in Kingston, NY while applying to graduate school in music. In 2001, Eric moved to California to attend the graduate program in music at Mills College. While at Mills he had the opportunity to study with Pauline Oliveros, Alvin Curran and Fred Frith, among others. He also played piano with the Mills Contemporary Performance Ensemble. For his thesis project he composed a piece in four movements entitled Window’s Time for flute, clarinet, violin and cello. The work was premiered at the annual Signal Flow Festival at Mills. To help support himself through graduate school, Eric worked for the Music Department as Assistant to the Concert Coordinator, making sure performances went smoothly and attending to the needs of the performers.

Since completing his Master of Arts in Music Composition in 2003, Eric has been teaching music, performing and composing in the Bay Area. He showcased his own compositions at several recitals and concerts in the East Bay including one concert in Alameda that featured his chamber works including Smoke and Mirrors. Eric has taught piano, percussion and guitar both privately and in the classroom. He is currently teaching at Starland Music Center, one of the top private music lesson studios in Northern California. Eric has plans to compile a music instruction book for younger students of folk songs from around the world.

In 2006, Eric began doing administrative work for Melody of China, a nonprofit Chinese music organization based in San Francisco. Since then, he has been working as their manager and project coordinator and has composed music for the ensemble. His piece Meandering Streams for Chinese quintet was premiered at the "Young Composers" concert in San Francisco in May 2007. That year, Eric was awarded the San Francisco Foundation's Funds for Artists Matching Commission grant. The following year, his piece, Butterfly's Beginnings, for Chinese sextet, was premiered by Melody of China at "Young Composers 2008" in San Francisco.

NEWS: Melody of China premiered Eric's new work, Standing at the Gate (2012), for Chinese sextet on December 7th, 2012 at Old First Church. Click here for a nice article in the Examiner by Johnathon Bakan mentioning the piece.