By DERRICK GALINDO
Student Reporter
One would never expect NWOSU’s band director to have such a beefy backstory.
Eric Burger is the instructor of instrumental music and the Director of Bands at NWOSU. He was born in Minneapolis Minnesota, and grew up in Davis California. He said after getting through college, he planned on teaching music. However, California pink slipped many teachers to a large degree, he said. At that time, married with three kids, he found that opportunity “had a door slammed shut on it,” he said.
Despite that choice being out of the cards for him at that moment, he found another route. After seeing an ad for the US Army Band, he found it the best course of action. After his audition for the Army Band, he joined at the age of 31.
He spent 21 years in the U.S. Army Band. During that time, he said, “the stories are too numerous to even get through.”
He said during his 11 years spent in Europe, he performed for three presidents and numerous heads of state, played in St. Catharine’s Palace in St. Petersburg, and at the Kremlin. Along with this feat in Europe, he spent a year in Iraq. During this time, he said he performed 175 times for soldiers of 33 different countries and for the people of Iraq.
During his time in the military, he also worked freelance performing with major bands in Europe. However, this time was exhausting for him.
“I’m working in the army and it’s a 50 hour job,” he said. “Three or four nights a week I’d be playing on the side. So, I’d have days where Monday night we’d play from 10 to 12, and then be back at work at 6 in the morning.
“Wednesday, we’d have a rehearsal from 4 to 7, and then we’d play from 8 to 1 and then I’m back at work at 6. Thursday we might have a gig in Berlin, which is five hours away.”
Making memories
However, his time in the military wasn’t always the best, but it was his job to make it a good memory.
“We were playing for the Marines,” he said. “We always try to play for the Marines first, because they live the hardest life of any kind of military people. We were booked to do a three-hour show. We get there; the Sergeant Major says, ‘I’m giving you an hour and twenty minutes.’
“We got work to do. He can’t turn us away, because it’s coming from a four star general, but he was only going to give us an hour and twenty minutes. It was an eighty-minute show, and we were used to playing a three hour show straight.
“We’re playing for the marines, the show was going well, and I see the sergeant major standing on the side of the stage, looks white as a ghost. He gives me a little motion, and I walked over. He says, ‘can you guys play as long as you can? We just had seven soldiers killed out on the front gate, and this is the last time these soldiers will have a good time for a very long time.’
“So, there’s the two sides of that. Some of these people you’re playing for, you’re giving them maybe the last chance they have to have a good time before something bad happens to them.”
