Ed Rooker is a native of Murfreesboro, TN. He received a Bachelor of Music degree from Vanderbilt University and his Master of Music degree from Appalachian State University. His professional experience includes performances as clarinetist with the U.S. Third Army Band, the Atlantic Community Orchestra, the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra, and twenty-eight years with the Winston-Salem Symphony Orchestra. In 1991, after teaching for thirty-five years, he retired from public school service.

Mr. Rooker has served the band section of NCMEA as state president and was given their Award of Excellence in 1991. In 1998 he received the Excellence in Teaching of Music Award from the North Carolina School for the Arts. He has also served as national president of the American School Band Directors Association, and, in the summer of 2002, ASBDA presented Mr. Rooker the Edwin Franko Goldman Award. In the fall of 2003, he was inducted into the North Carolina Bandmasters Association Hall of Fame. Mr. Rooker remains active as an adjudicator, clinician, and mentor throughout the United States.