Eric Small has been elected to the Board of Directors for Opera Santa Barbara. Small is a yoga practitioner and advocate for its use in treating multiple sclerosis and other disorders. His three-year term on the Opera Santa Barbara Board began in April.
Born in Avalon, Catalina Island, Small completed his undergraduate studies at UCLA before earning a master’s degree at Otis Institute.
Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at age 22, he soon became a serious student of Iyengar yoga, and went on to study with the discipline’s founder, B.K.S. Iyengar, in Pune, India.
Small travels throughout the U.S. conducting therapeutic yoga workshops and seminars. Through his Stress Control Systems Trust, based in Montecito, he creates programs specifically for clients diagnosed with MS and other neurological conditions.
He was inducted into the National Multiple Sclerosis Society Volunteer Hall of Fame in 2001. Small currently serves on the Board of Directors for USC, the Doheny Eye Institute, the Los Angeles Opera, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
“Opera Santa Barbara is extremely fortunate to have Eric Small join our Board,” said Chair Nancy Golden. “His service on the Los Angeles Opera Board, as well as his keen interest in educating the next generation of opera singers, will be very useful as we plot our company’s path forward.”
Additional information is available at www.operasb.org.
— Tim Dougherty for Opera Santa Barbara.