Kentucky native Eric Caines is a performer of both modern and historic oboes. A longtime early music enthusiast, Caines is also a maker of authentic historic oboes, working closely with master oboe maker Harry Vas Dias, and historic oboist Geoffrey Burgess. A frequent lecturer on the subject, he has presented at several events, most recently Oboes on the Ohio and The International Double Reed Society. He has been a proponent of early music in Appalachia, and has collaborated in an annual event held at Marshall University which combines guest artists and students in a week-long celebration of historically informed performance.
A fine modern oboist and English hornist, Eric has served for two years as the event coordinator for REEDX2, an intensive English horn seminar with Tom Stacy (New York Philharmonic). In 2016, he was the winner of Marshall University’s Concert of Soloists, performing Hummel’s Introduction, Theme and Variations with the Marshall University Symphony Orchestra, and won the Paul A. Balshaw Award for Orchestral Excellence in 2017. He has performed with The Huntington (WV) Symphony Orchestra, and The Ohio Valley Symphony, and recently appeared as Solo English horn in a performance of Copland’s Quiet City with The Marshall University Wind Symphony.
A graduate of Marshall University, Caines’s primary studies have been with Richard Kravchak, Ann Marie Bingham, John Viton, Nancy Clauter, Geoffrey Burgess, and Tom Stacy, and he has studied privately with Mark Ostoich, Amy Collins, Dwight Parry, and Debra Nagy. Eric keeps an active lesson studio, and recently relocated to Savannah where he currently resides with his cat, Knox.