Born in Chicago and reared in Toronto, Erle began his violin studies at age 3, taught by his mother, Brownie Earl.
At age 5, he started taking lessons from Pasquale Briglia, concertmaster of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
According to Erle, his most important teacher was Alexander Bloch, a violinist, conductor, and composer who was once a student and assistant of Leopold Auer.
[6] Along with violist Walter Trampler, cellist Claus Adam, and violinist Matthew Raimondi, Erle formed in 1948 the highly regarded [7] [8] New Music Quartet, which specialized in performing and recording modern music.
[9] [10] [11] His other students at Yale have included Marin Alsop, [12] [13] Ralph Evans, Shem Guibbory, [14] Hu Nai-yuan, [15] Takako Nishizaki, [16] Peter Salaff, [17] and Daniel Stepner.