Dr. Eric Stark, choral conductor

Multi-faceted conductor Eric Stark shares his love of music-making with singers, students, and audience alike in a career that has received wide acclaim in relatively little time. He continues to build a reputation for innovative, eclectic programming and for choirs that exhibit both beautiful and dramatic performances.

Stark was named Artistic Director of the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir in the spring of 2002 following a two-year national search. Previously, he was Artistic Director of the Indianapolis Arts Chorale and the Muncie, Indiana-based Masterworks Chorale. He has conducted a wide variety of works for chorus and orchestra, including compositions by Bach, Handel, Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Menotti and Britten. His choirs have collaborated with numerous community arts organizations, and released two compact disc recordings. He has prepared choruses for such conductors as Jahja Ling, Raymond Leppard, Carl St. Clair, Erich Kunzel, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Kirk Trevor, Harry Bickett and Jack Everly.

As a conductor of university choirs, Stark is associate professor of music at Butler University's Jordan College of Fine Arts, where he directs the Butler Chorale and Madrigal Singers, and teaches courses in conducting, choral literature, and vocal techniques. Under his direction, Butler students have performed choral masterworks such as the Poulenc Gloria, Britten's Saint Nicolas, Menotti's The Unicorn, the Gorgon and the Manticore, Monteverdi's Madrigali guerrieri et amorosi (on period instruments), selected Bach cantatas and motets, and the annual madrigal dinners. He has also served on the faculties of Earlham College, Indiana University-Purdue University at Fort Wayne, and Christian Theological Seminary.

On Mother's Day 2002 he made his Carnegie Hall conducting debut, leading a performance of Mozart's Coronation Mass with the New England Symphonic Ensemble and festival chorus. Upon conclusion of the concert, he was immediately named Associate Conductor for MidAmerica Productions, an organization which presents over fifty concerts per year in Carnegie Hall.

He holds the bachelor of arts degree from Wabash College and master's and doctoral degrees in choral conducting from Indiana University, where he was guest conductor of the J.S. Bach cantata Himmelskönig, sei wilkommen, BWV 182, as part of the 1997 Bach Collegium. In 2003 he returned to Indiana University to present "Berlioz's Use of the Chorus in 'La Damnation de Faust'" as part of the school's Berlioz bicentennial celebration. The recipient of a 2003 Creative Arts Renewal Fellowship from the Arts Council of Indianapolis, he has participated in master classes with Helmuth Rilling, John Alexander, and Jorge Mester. A native of Maine, Stark is a volunteer pilot for Angel Flight, an organization providing no-cost air transportation for those in medical need, and also past president of the Indiana Choral Directors' Association.

E-mail: estark@butler.edu