Percussionist and jazz vibraphonist Erik Charlston, originally from Chicago, has a diverse career centered in New York, where he currently leads his JazzBrasil sextet. Charlston has also performed or recorded with Wynton Marsalis, Steve Coleman, James Carter, Orlando Puntilla Rios, Sam Rivers, Dave Brubeck, and Tony Bennett, among others. He has performed with Sting, Billy Joel and Elton John at Carnegie Hall, and with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, he played with Metallica at Madison Square Garden. Alongside Bill Frisell, Gil Goldstein, Marty Ehrlich and Greg Cohen, he has interpreted the music of the classic film composer Bernard Herrmann in London with the BBC Symphony, in France with the Orchestre National de Lyon and with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Erik performs regularly with the Metropolitan Opera, with Encores at City Center, and on over a hundred film soundtracks from Disney’s original “Aladdin” to the recent “Joker," Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” and “Barbie.” A frequent performer on Broadway in shows such as “Hair” and “The Lion King,” he has also played with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s as well as the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Moscow’s Moiseyev Dance Company, the Radio City Music Hall Orchestra and as soloist on Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion.” Recording credits include radio, television, films, and record labels such as Sony, Gramavision, Telarc, EMI, Newport Classics, Nonesuch, and French Antilles.


Outside New York, he has performed chamber music throughout Europe and Japan, and with the New York Philharmonic, has toured extensively throughout North and South America, Europe, and Asia, including North Korea. He taught at the Manhattan School of Music for over twenty years and served as co-chair of the percussion department.