Erica Verrillo was born in Rochester, New York on May 10th (Mother's Day), 1953, during the height of the McCarthy era. (According to the testimony of sworn witnesses, she was born "rosy" not "pink.") She is the oldest of three surviving children. Her parents, both classical musicians, named her after famed violinist, Erica Morini. In keeping with her namesake, Verrillo studied piano with her mother as a young child, and then flute with John Oberbrunner. At age seventeen she moved to England, where she played in the Oxford Symphony Orchestra and studied with Gareth Morris, principal flutist of the Philharmonia Orchestra. A year later she moved back to the U.S. where she attended New England Conservatory as a student of James Pappoutsakis.