[1] The original members of the EAR Unit were Dorothy Stone (flute); James Rohrig (clarinet); Amy Knoles and Daniel Kennedy (percussion); Gaylord Mowrey and Michael McCandless (piano); Robin Lorentz and Mary Terranova (violin); Erika Duke (cello); and Rand Steiger (conductor).
Amy Knoles is the only remaining original member, along with longtime pianist Vicki Ray, and violinist Eric KM Clark.
[2] The EAR Unit was formed at the California Institute of the Arts in 1981 by a group of students who had all been performing in the CalArts 20th-Century Players under the direction of Stephen "Lucky" Mosko.
At one of the first concerts in 1982, in a bank building in downtown Los Angeles, they presented a program that included works by Steve Reich, Pierre Boulez, Frederic Rzewski, and Donald Martino.
Among the many other composers the EAR Unit has commissioned and premiered are Louis Andriessen, Eve Beglarian, Henry Brant, Kitty Brazelton, Joan LaBarbara, Annea Lockwood, Scott Lindroth, Robert Paterson (composer), Mel Powell, Terry Riley, Erkki-Sven Tüür, Wadada Leo Smith, Ann Millikan, Nicholas Frances Chase and Julia Wolfe.