Eric was halfway through a Latin/Math double major at Swarthmore when he took his first music theory course "just for fun".  Everybody had to write little pieces at the end of the semester and he got a bit carried away... the faculty took him aside following and asked what he was doing with his life.  He rattled off something about law school or consulting but was promptly informed that he was wrong, that he was a composer, and that hearing and seeing music in your head constantly wasn't normal.  He eventually made the leap of faith and Pieris Music is the result.

Eric is gifted with (or suffers from?) a neurological condition called synaesthesia.  Basically, the visual and auditory sections of his brain are cross-wired so he sees music.  But don't start thinking its some sort of mystical whatever... The major universities that have studied the phenomenon have concluded that at least one in a thousand people have some form of it.  Many theorize that we are all born with the ability but we train ourselves to separate the senses as we develop.  Apparently, Eric never grew up.

This really isn't so rare amongst composers, actually, but most seem to see colors.  Eric's visuals are more structural... like an X-Ray diagram of the invisible energy that musical particles leave behind as they trace their layered paths through three-dimensional space. 

After making peace with the "Am I just crazy or what?" question, Eric set out on a mission to liberate his synaesthetic visions from the confines of his brain.  This has led to a technology patent (currently pending) and several test concerts.  Most notably, his Kimmel Center debut drew considerable praise from the Philadelphia Inquirer: "Past attempts to pair music with visuals have been critically damned, but the latest endeavor, involving computer-generated abstract imagery, made a deeply promising debut... the visuals formed an organic union with the music."

As a composer, Eric's works have been performed in numerous art and club venues including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Club Fluid, and San Francisco's Mighty.  Eric trained under masters of the German and French traditions, absorbing the best elements of two schools that have shaped and polarized the evolution of western classical for centuries.  Under Gerald Levinson, who was himself a student of Messiaen at the Paris Conservatory, Eric expanded his harmonic toolkit and palette of orchestral colors.  Under Harold Boatright, a master of the German tradition, he immersed himself in a deep study of structure and fugal counterpoint.  Both schools can be heard in his music, which often fuses impressionistic and romantic harmonic structures with contrapuntal forms.

Although Eric often wonders if he should have been born in the mid 1800s, he's also grateful for the rare opportunities that our modern technology brings.  For the first time in history, composers don't have to travel to absorb the music of other cultures and the potential for new fusions is staggering.  Having been the "white guy in the horn section" in a hip hop band (playing trombone), Eric's natural affinity for the music of our time can't help but expresses itself.  Even in his classically structured works, he often fuses hip hop loops and electronic orchestration. 

With the Lumia Ensemble, Eric hopes to integrate all that he has learned and loved, forming a new  fusion of sound and light as rooted in the past as it is reaching toward the future.


Audio Samples of Eric's Work

Peirene's Lament (reason-synth version)

an early computer synth rendering that starts soft... live soloists will eventually cover most of these parts, so forgive the automatronic aspects of this sketch version.

1. Accidental Death
2. Descent into Madness
3. Misericordia
4. Choral Purification