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