Eric Stern | |
---|---|
Born | [ citation needed ] Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US | June 9, 1971
Genres | Opera, Cabaret, Jazz, Bohemian |
Occupation(s) | Musician, multi-instrumentalist, arranger, composer, songwriter |
Instrument(s) | Vocals, piano, accordion |
Years active | 2002–present |
Website | ericsternevents.com |
Eric Stern is an American vocalist, accordionist, composer, arranger, and pianist based in Portland, Oregon, best known as the founder and artistic director of the band Vagabond Opera. [1] He also performs as a soloist, as well as with the Eric Stern Trio. Stern, with Vagabond Opera, has appeared on NPR [2] and performed at the Kennedy Center, [3] the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, [4] Joe's Pub in New York City. [5]
Stern was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in June 1971 and trained as a vocalist at the Delaware Valley Opera Company. At the age of 21, Stern decided to pursue writing and moved to Paris, returning to the U.S., and to music, a year and a half later. [6]
In 2002, Stern founded the group Vagabond Opera, known for their blend of eclectic musical styles, including German cabaret, Klezmer, and jazz. [2] [6] The band released four albums until their hiatus in 2015. [7] With the band, Stern also wrote, composed and performed the 2010 opera Queen of Knives , in collaboration with Wanderlust Circus. [8] [9]
Stern has recorded and performed with a variety of musical acts including The Decemberists, [10] Balkan Beat Box, Unwoman, Pink Martini, and DeVotchka. [11] In 2011, Stern composed the score for the Tears of Joy Puppet Theatre's production of Pinocchio . [12]
In March 2015, Stern's independent production company, Hungry Opera Machine, debuted its first opera at the Alberta Rose Theatre: Flour, Salt, & Moonbeams. It was well received by critics. [13]
Stern currently works as the Events Coordinator and Cultural Arts Ambassador for Eastside Jewish Commons, a nonprofit in Porland, Oregon. [14]
ASCAP Concert Division Panel award recognizing creative contributions to American music (September 2011).
The music of Oregon reflects the diverse array of styles present in the music of the United States, from Native American music to the contemporary genres of rock and roll, country, rhythm and blues, jazz, pop, electronic music, and hip hop. However, throughout most of its history, the state has been relatively isolated from the cultural forces shaping American music. Much of modern popular music traces its roots to the emergence in the late 19th century of African American blues and the growth of gospel music in the 1920s. African American musicians borrowed elements of European and Indigenous musics to create new American forms. As Oregon's population was more homogeneous and more white than the United States as a whole, the state did not play a significant role in this history.
The Decemberists are an American indie rock band from Portland, Oregon. The band consists of Colin Meloy, Chris Funk, Jenny Conlee, Nate Query (bass), and John Moen (drums).
Colin Patrick Henry Meloy is an American musician, singer-songwriter and author best known as the frontman of the Portland, Oregon, indie folk rock band the Decemberists. In addition to vocals, he performs with an acoustic guitar, 12-string acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bouzouki, harmonica and percussion instruments.
Music Millennium is an independent record store located in Portland, Oregon. Its founding in 1969 supports claims that it's the oldest continually-operating record store in the Pacific Northwest. Music Millennium is considered an iconic Portland business and a "national leader in the music-selling industry."
Jennifer Lynn Conlee-Drizos is an American musician, best known as the accordionist, pianist, organist, keyboardist, melodica player, and occasional backup singer and harmonicist for the indie rock quintet The Decemberists.
Storm Large is an American singer, songwriter, actress and author. She attracted national attention as a contestant on the CBS reality television show Rock Star: Supernova. For many years solely a rock artist, in recent years she has branched out into theater and cabaret. A resident of Portland, Oregon, Large currently performs nationally with her own band, and tours internationally with the Portland-based band Pink Martini.
Shara Nova is the lead singer and songwriter for My Brightest Diamond. As a composer she is most recognized for her choral compositions and the baroque chamber opera "You Us We All". New music composers Sarah Kirkland Snider, David Lang, Steve Mackey and Bryce Dessner have composed pieces for Nova's voice. She has recorded as a guest vocalist with David Byrne, Laurie Anderson, The Decemberists, Sufjan Stevens, Jedi Mind Tricks, The Blind Boys of Alabama and Stateless as well as extensive collaborations with visual artists Matthew Ritchie and Matthew Barney. She was formerly the frontwoman of AwRY. On March 3, 2016, Shara legally changed her last name from Worden to Nova after divorcing her husband, to whom she had been married most of her adult life.
Norman Fowler Leyden was an American conductor, composer, arranger, and clarinetist. He worked in film and television and is perhaps best known as the conductor of the Oregon Symphony Pops orchestra. He co-wrote with Glenn Miller the theme "I Sustain the Wings" in 1943, which was used to introduce the World War II radio series.
The Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center (IFCC) is a community-based arts center located in North Portland, Oregon, United States.
Loch Lomond is an American indie folk band based in Portland, Oregon, founded as a solo recording project of Ritchie Young in 2003.
Pinocchio is a fictional character and the protagonist of the children's novel The Adventures of Pinocchio (1883) by Italian writer Carlo Collodi of Florence, Tuscany. Pinocchio was carved by a woodcarver named Geppetto in a Tuscan village. He is created as a wooden puppet, but he dreams of becoming a real boy. He is known for his long nose, which grows when he lies.
Queen of Knives is an opera in two acts by the American composer Eric Stern. The English libretto was written by the composer. The opera premiered in Portland, Oregon, on May 7, 2010, at the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center. Noah Mickens directed the premiere and the opera was produced by Vagabond Opera and Wanderlust Circus.
Black Prairie is a six-piece string band from Portland, Oregon. The band formed in early 2007. Their first album, Feast of the Hunter's Moon, was released on April 6, 2010, on the Sugar Hill label.
Noah Howard Mickens is an American performance artist, showman, and writer from Portland, Oregon, primarily known for his contributions to vaudevillian revival, and as a ringmaster and master of Ceremonies for several theatrical circus troupes. His stage persona, William Batty currently serves as the ringmaster of the Wanderlust Circus, as well as the emcee of numerous vaudevillian and bohemian events in the area.
Typhoon is an American indie rock band based in Portland, Oregon. Led by singer-songwriter Kyle Morton since its founding in 2005, the band is anchored by bassist Toby Tanabe, guitarist Dave Hall, drummer Alex Fitch, and violinist/vocalist Shannon Steele and has been noted for its large size, boasting up to fourteen members in its past. They have released five albums and two EPs, also contributing to a number of compilations. Their most recent album, Underground Complex No. 1 was released on April 15, 2022.
Wanderlust Circus is a theatrical circus troupe based in Portland, Oregon, founded in 2006 by creative partners Noah Mickens and Nick "The Creature" Harbar. Since 2006, Wanderlust Circus has grown from a small band of creatives to a full-fledged circus troupe, and non-profit organization. The organization presently comprises a team of acrobats, a 10-piece swing band, a trick-roping cowboy clown; and several aerialists, contortionists, hand balancers, jugglers, and dancers. Their most popular recurring shows have been The White Album Christmas, A Circus Carol, and the dance party series MegaBounce.
Since the early 1980s, several non-steam-powered sternwheel riverboats have been built and operated on major waterways in the U.S. state of Oregon, primarily the Willamette and Columbia Rivers, as river cruise ships used for tourism. Although configured as sternwheelers, they are not paddle steamers, but rather are motor vessels that are only replicas of paddle steamers. They are powered instead by diesel engines. The Lurdine was, when launched in 1983, "the first passenger-carrying sternwheeler in decades to [operate] on the Columbia River". In the case of the 1983-built M.V. Columbia Gorge, the construction and operation of a tourist sternwheeler was led by local government officials who viewed the idea as potentially being a major tourist attraction, giving an economic boost to their area, Cascade Locks, Oregon.
The A and B Loop is a streetcar circle route of the Portland Streetcar system in Portland, Oregon, United States. Operated by Portland Streetcar, Inc. and TriMet, it consists of two services within the Central City that travel a loop between the east and west sides of the Willamette River by crossing the Broadway Bridge in the north and Tilikum Crossing in the south: the 6.1-mile (9.8 km) A Loop, which runs clockwise, and the 6.6-mile (10.6 km) B Loop, which runs counterclockwise. The services connect Portland's downtown, Pearl District, Lloyd District, Central Eastside, and South Waterfront, and serve various landmarks and institutions, including the Rose Quarter, the Oregon Convention Center, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI), Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), and Portland State University (PSU). Riders can transfer to the regional MAX Light Rail system at several points along the route.
Down by the Water is a song on the American indie rock band The Decemberists' sixth album, The King is Dead. It was released as a single in 2010.
Lola's Room is a venue operated by McMenamins inside Portland, Oregon's Crystal Ballroom, in the United States.