Rare and intimate performance from New York
Erik has built his career as a Saxophonist, Flutist, Composer, Arranger, Music Journalist, Poet, Educator and Sound and Vibrational Healing Practitioner. He was a longtime founding member of the multi-Grammy winning, legendary Levon Helm Band.
His career as a sideman has been marked with legendary artists including Levon Helm, The Band, Bob Dylan, Little Feat, Robert Plant and Allison Krauss, Aretha Franklin, John Cale (from Velvet Underground), Elivis Costello, Roger Waters, M’Boom, Millennial Territory Orchestra, Buddy Miles, Glen Hansard, Chico Hamilton, Joan Osborne, Sonny Sharrock, The Spin Doctors, The Levin Brothers, master Tibetan master musicians Yungchen Lhamo and Nawang Khechog as well as poets Robert Pinsky, Frank Messina, Eric Mingus, Jane LeCroy and Barry Wallenstein.
Son of jazz saxophonist and rock and roll guru Arnie Lawrence, who founded the New School of Jazz in New York City and the International Center for Creative Music Studies in Jerusalem, Erik began playing saxophone at five years old.
Erik’s music is diverse, soulful, thoughtful, funky and deeply creative. Time and again Erik hasbeen selected by artists for his strong, sensitive, unique voice and sensitivity to complement an artist’s music.
Erik currently co-leads TuBari, a genre-bending trio with unique instrumentation.
Erik began teaching at the college level the age of 18, having held residencies at Williams College, Dartmouth, Putney School, Montclair State University and others.