Ernest Stires (December 17, 1925 – May 4, 2008) was an American composer, musician, and mentor. His jazz-based classical music has been performed both throughout the United States and abroad.
Stires was born in
Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria is an independent city (United States), independent city in the northern region of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of Downto ...
, to a family of musicians. His maternal grandparents were the
mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano or mezzo (; ; meaning "half soprano") is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A below middle C ...
Louise Homer
Louise Beatty Homer (April 30, 1871May 6, 1947) was an American operatic contralto who had an active international career in concert halls and opera houses from 1895 until her retirement in 1932.
After a brief stint as a vaudeville entertainer ...
and the American
art song
An art song is a Western vocal music composition, usually written for one voice with piano accompaniment, and usually in the classical art music tradition. By extension, the term "art song" is used to refer to the collective genre of such songs ...
composer
Sidney Homer
Sidney Homer, Sr. (9 December 1864 – 10 July 1953) was a classical composer, primarily of songs.
Biography
Homer was the youngest child born to deaf parents in Boston, Massachusetts on December 9, 1864 (some sources use 1865). He attended ...
, while his cousin was the composer
Samuel Barber
Samuel Osmond Barber II (March 9, 1910 – January 23, 1981) was an American composer, pianist, conductor, baritone, and music educator, and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century. The music critic Donal Henahan said, "Proba ...
. His paternal grandparents were Bishop
Ernest Milmore Stires and Sarah Stires. He was educated first at the
Episcopal High School in Alexandria and then at
Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
and
Dartmouth, finally graduating from
Trinity College Trinity College may refer to:
Australia
* Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales
* Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...
in Connecticut. After service as a U.S. Navy pilot in World War II, Stires worked as a television advertising executive, first for
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
in California and then later for
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...
in Boston. Although he had begun improvising jazz on the piano while still a small child, he did not devote himself to music as a career until 1962 when he studied composition with
Nicolas Slonimsky
Nicolas Slonimsky ( – December 25, 1995), born Nikolai Leonidovich Slonimskiy (russian: Никола́й Леони́дович Сло́нимский), was a Russian-born American conductor, author, pianist, composer and lexicographer. B ...
and
Francis Judd Cooke
Francis Judd Cooke (December 28, 1910 – May 18, 1995) was an American composer, organist, cellist, pianist, conductor, choir director, and professor.
Life
Cooke was born December 28, 1910 in Honolulu, Hawaii, to a family of New England mi ...
.
Ernie has three children: Sarah Stires, Ernie Stires, and Elizabeth Stires, all of whom share his love of music.
He moved to
Vermont
Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...
in 1967 where he was an administrator for the
Vermont Symphony Orchestra
The Vermont Symphony Orchestra (VSO) is a symphony orchestra based in, and supported in part by, the U.S. state of Vermont. It is a 501(c)(3) corporation. It is one of the few, and the oldest, state-supported symphony orchestras in the United St ...
and the
Chamber Music Conference and Composers' Forum of the East and one of the founding members of the
Consortium of Vermont Composers. He also worked as a volunteer teaching basic music theory and composition to young musicians in his community. Amongst his students were
Trey Anastasio
Ernest Joseph "Trey" Anastasio III (born September 30, 1964) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, best known as the lead guitarist of the rock band Phish, which he co-founded in 1983. He is credited by name as composer of 152 Phish o ...
, a member of the band
Phish
Phish is an American rock band formed in Burlington, Vermont, in 1983. The band is known for musical improvisation, extended jams, blending of genres, and a dedicated fan base. The band consists of guitarist Trey Anastasio, bassist Mike Gordon ...
, film composer/guitarist
John Kasiewicz, composer/sound-artist
Rama Gottfried, and
Jamie Masefield of the
Jazz Mandolin Project
The Jazz Mandolin Project was an acoustic jazz fusion group formed in Burlington, Vermont, by Jamie Masefield in 1993.
Masefield played banjo with dixieland bands, including the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, before switching to mandolin. In 1996, ...
. Stires' electric guitar concerto, ''Chat Rooms'', was written expressly for Anastasio who premiered it in 2001 with the
Vermont Youth Orchestra
Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the n ...
under Troy Peters, an event covered on national television.
[Paul Robicheau]
Youth Orchestra Plays Phish
''Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'', February 5, 2001 In 2004, his violin concerto was premiered at
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...
in New York in a performance by the Vermont Youth Orchestra with
Ruotao Mao, first violinist of the
Amabile Quartet, as the soloist.
Ernie Stires died in Vermont on May 4, 2008, at the age of 82.
References
*Shane Handler
The Jazz Mandolin Project Does The Jungle Tango ''Glide Magazine'', April 6, 2003
*Scott Bernstein
In Memory of Ernie Stires (1925-2008) Hidden Track on ''Glide Magazine'', May 9, 2008.
External links
Ernie Stires Tribute PageAudio interview with Ernie Stires National Public Radio
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...
, Weekend Edition Sunday, December 20, 1998
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stires, Ernie
1925 births
2008 deaths
Harvard University alumni
Dartmouth College alumni
20th-century classical composers
American male classical composers
American classical composers
United States Navy pilots of World War II
20th-century American composers
20th-century American male musicians