Dr. Eric Stark, Professor, Director of Butler Chorale and
Butler Madrigal Singers
Eric Stark continues to build upon a highly
regarded career as conductor, educator, collaborator and community
leader. He has conducted in New York City's Carnegie Hall, the
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC, Strathmore
Hall in Bethesda, MD, the Oriental Art Center Concert Hall in
Shanghai, the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing, has made
frequent conducting appearances in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil and
Uruguay, and has led choirs on domestic tours in New York City,
Boston, Atlanta, Chicago, New Orleans, Orlando and Tampa.
In December 2010, he returned to the podium of
the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra to lead Messiah, in a
performance that garnered impressive critical praise ("The detail
and subtlety in chorus after chorus was remarkable throughout a
performance Saturday night at Clowes Hall, with the choir's
artistic director on the podium." Indianapolis Star). He
made his podium debut as guest conductor of the Indianapolis
Symphony Orchestra in 2008 ("galvanic performance….the Choir sang
excellently throughout." Nuvo Newsweekly). His December
2007 Washington DC debut with the Washington Chorus was also met
with critical and popular acclaim ("Eric Stark had the chorus
singing crisply and brightly….its rich, close harmonies
shimmering." Washington Post). In June of 2010, he
traveled to Shanghai to conduct Brahms's Ein deutsches
Requiem in the Shanghai Oriental Art Center Concert Hall with
members of the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir and Festival
Orchestra.
As conductor of major works for chorus and
orchestra, Stark has led performances of Britten's War
Requiem and Saint Nicolas, Mendelssohn's
Elijah and Die erste Walpurgisnacht, Orff's
Carmina Burana, Bach's Mass in B minor, the Christmas Oratorio and
numerous cantatas, Handel's Messiah and Israel in
Egypt, Zipoli's Te Deum, Beethoven's Mass in C, Mozart's
"Coronation" Mass and Requiem, Brahms's Ein deutsches
Requiem, the Poulenc Gloria, Fauré's Requiem, and Lauridsen's
Lux Aeterna. He has prepared choruses for such notable
conductors as Raymond Leppard, Jahja Ling, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Mario
Venzago, Carl St. Clair, Erich Kunzel and Jack Everly. His choruses
are heard on multiple compact discs, including the recent complete
recording of Mendelssohn's Elijah (2011) with the
Indianapolis Symphonic Choir, Indianapolis Children's Choir and
Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, From East to West, (2006)
a holiday compilation with the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir,
The Harmonies of Hoosier History, (2001) featuring works
by Indiana composers performed by the Indianapolis Arts Chorale and
A Festival of Carols (1997) with the Muncie, Indiana
Masterworks Chorale.
Stark's work as artistic collaborator and
community leader has been both broad and unique. Under his
leadership, his choirs have performed with such groups as the
Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra,
Dance Kaleidoscope, Indiana Repertory Theater, Indianapolis
Children's Choir, American Pianists Association, Jordan College
Academy of Dance, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Clowes Memorial Hall,
Orquesta Sinfonica Juvenil de Santa Cruz de la Sierra (Bolivia) and
Butler University. He was honored with a Creative Renewal
Fellowship from the Arts Council of Indianapolis in 2005.
At Butler University, Stark is Professor of
Music, Director of Graduate Studies and Assistant Chair of the
School of Music at the Jordan College of Fine Arts. There he
conducts the Butler Chorale, teaches graduate and undergraduate
conducting and choral literature, and serves as coordinator of the
vocal and choral areas. His former conducting students have
received appointments at significant choral positions around the
United States, including Stetson University, Princeton University,
San Francisco Girls Chorus, Los Angeles Opera, Fort Wayne
Children's Chorus and the University of Wisconsin. He has designed
and taught a Butler University honors course, Putting Wings on
Dreams-the First 100 Years of Powered Flight, using the
dramatic stories of aviation pioneers as case studies in human
determination and innovation. He has served on the faculties of
Christian Theological Seminary, Indiana-Purdue at Fort Wayne and
Earlham College. He received the doctoral degree in choral
conducting from Indiana University, where he was a student of Jan
Harrington, Robert Porco and Thomas Dunn. A 1988 graduate of Wabash
College, he is also a volunteer pilot for Angel Flight, a
non-profit network of pilots providing free air transportation for
those with medical needs.
(317) 940-9981
estark@butler.edu