John Eric Copeland - Early Life

Early Life

Eric Copeland was born in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1963. His father, David Ellis Copeland, was a band leader and trombonist. His mother, Mary Janet Bond Copeland, was a piano teacher and accomplished church organist. Eric played piano growing up, and also played trombone in the Lafayette high school marching band. His musical training came from his parents, his grandmother, a piano teacher, and various mentors through church and high school.

At age thirteen, he began writing and arranging original compositions and it became apparent that music would become a lifelong obsession.

As a teen, he began recording music and releasing his own material to friends and family. Also, he became known as "the guy with the recording equipment", and began recording friends and family from his father's basement.

After attending both the University of Kentucky and the University of Illinois at Chicago, he worked in various bands and singing groups, all the while continuing to write and record original music and arrangements. It was in Chicago when he began getting serious about jazz, working with singers and bands in that area.