Eric McCrary – Tenor / Pianist / Organist
Mr. Eric McCrary, a New Orleans native and resident in Metairie, LA, has been in music education for over 20 years. He has been a Music Classroom teacher on both the Collegiate and K-12 levels, a choral director since 1990 and has given private voice and piano lessons. As an undergraduate at the University of New Orleans, he double majored in Vocal Music Education and Vocal Music Performance. He eventually received his Masters in Choral Conducting under the guidance of Dr. Caroline Carson.
Mr. McCrary has been singing professionally as a Lyric Tenor for over 25 years and has had the distinguished honor of performing solos with The New Orleans Vocal Arts Chorale (NOVA) and the Jefferson Performing Arts Society. He is a regular guest soloist for weddings at Immaculate Conception “Jesuit” Church in Downtown New Orleans and is one of the primary soloists at St. Agnes Church in Jefferson, LA and St. Ann Catholic Church and National Shrine in Metairie, LA. Although Mr. McCrary has traveled as far as Phoenix, AZ for a wedding engagement, he is most often found around the Metropolitan New Orleans area. He has also sung in various churches in Slidell, Hammond, Mandeville, Covington, Madisonville, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Lake Charles and as far down as Houma, LA.
As a church musician, Mr. McCrary directs two choral ensembles: The Saint Agnes Vocal Ensemble at St.Agnes Church in Jefferson (Sunday mornings at 11:00 a.m.) and The Saint Ann Youth Choir at St. Ann Catholic Church and National Shrine (Sunday evenings at 5:00 p.m.) In addition, Mr. McCrary is well known for his skill of being able to accompanying himself while singing which he does for the 4:00 p.m. Saturday Vigil Mass at St. Ann’s Church in Metairie. He is also the lead male cantor at the historic Immaculate Conception “Jesuit” Church on Baronne Street in Downtown New Orleans and sings regularly for the 7:30 p.m. Sunday Mass.
During all this time, he also worked as an apprentice recording engineer at “The NoiseLab”, a local prominent recording studio in uptown New Orleans, under the supervision of recording and mastering engineers James Augustin, Kent Burkel and Dave Reynolds, before finally being let loose as a stand-alone recording engineer in 1998. He has recorded such artists as “War”, “5-Finger Discount”, George Porter and Barry & Susan Cowsill (The family that was modeled for the TV show “The Partridge Family) as well as many other local artists from the New Orleans and surrounding areas.
He soon branched off and opened his own mobile recording studio called “EMAC Studios”. His studio has been contracted to record such events as choral festivals and concerts, classical voice and jazz recitals, rock & heavy-metal concerts and non-music events. He is also an avid proponent of integrating technology into the music curriculum. Over the past 2 years he has given “Music Technology Integration” seminars at the University of New Orleans and Loyola University, as well as classes on recording. EMAC Studios’ latest completed project is a full restoration of analog recordings of concerts and recitals from 1974 to the present, by former UNO voice professor, Dr. Raquel Cortina.
Mr. McCrary is currently the Network Administrator/Technology Coordinator and Computer Teacher at St. Louis King of France Catholic School in Metairie, LA as well as the accompanist for the school’s Children’s Choir and sound engineer for the Drama Department.