ERIC STOKES FUND

Shortly after the death of Eric Stokes in March of 1999, his family and friends set up a Fund in his memory. It was his wish that most of the income from music rental and royalties received by Horspfal Music Concern, his publishing company, be donated to such a fund, which he named "Earth's Best in Tune." The fund is administered by the American Composers Forum and supports projects that address one of these goals:

1. To support new music about nature and the environment which focuses on environmental and ecological issues

2. To support performances of Eric Stokes compositions

For further information contact composersforum.org/opportunities

REMEBERENCE

Composer Eric Stokes, an irreplaceable teacher, colleague, and friend to many, died in an automobile accident on March 16, 1999 in Minneapolis, MN. He was 68. This tribute is adapted from remarks prepared in part by Arnold Walker and read by Homer Lambrecht at a memorial service held on March 21, 1999, in Minneapolis.

"All of us who knew and loved him have composed our own biographies of Eric Stokes. I am confident of one thing: that all such biographies are different. They will differ depending on how long we knew him, and how well. And they will differ depending on whether we knew him as a composer, a conductor, a singer, a teacher, a cook, a poet, a gardener, a businessman, a woodsman... or some combination of these. What follows, then, is just one of the countless possible accounts of Eric's life, along with some personal reflections on his legacy.

Eric Norman Stokes was born on July 14, 1930, in Haddon Heights, New Jersey, about ten miles southeast of Philadelphia. His father, Elliot, was director of the Philadelphia office of an import-export firm. His mother, Marie Louise, was the artistic influence - a woman of sharp musical insight, although she played no instrument but was a good vocalist.

Eric took piano lessons and sang in school choirs in Haddon Heights. He started composing while still in school and loved the activity, and also perhaps, the time he spend recovering from polio aided in providing time to consider the proposition. By the time he went off to Lawrence College (now Lawrence University) in Wisconsin, he had decided on a musical career.

Finishing his Bachelor of Music degree in 1952, he wanted immediately to go on to graduate studies but was slowed by two years in the army, where he became a corporal and was assigned to teach new recruits about chemical warfare. He developed a profound distaste for military life, but did have the pleasure of knowing Willie Mays, his bunk mate and future baseball superstar.

After his discharge, Eric moved to Boston, earning his Master of Music degree at the New England Conservatory in 1956. This was followed by a productive year at the Montalvo Artists' Retreat. In 1959 he married Cynthia Crain in her home town of Rochester, New York, and returned to the midwest to begin doctoral studies at the University of Minnesota.

His first faculty appointment was to the University's General College, where he taught music and other subjects. It was a wonderful environment in which to hone his sometimes unorthodox teaching methods. He then moved on to the University's Department of Music, which remained his base until his retirement in 1988.

Eric's 29 years at the University of Minnesota were busy ones - the core of his creative life. In the '60's he collaborated with Tom Nee to present new music in the pioneering Here Concerts series at the Walker Art Center. In 1970 he founded the University's electronic music laboratory, and in 1971 he organized the First Minnesota Moving and Storage Warehouse Band, a contemporary music ensemble.

His first opera, Horspfal, commissioned by the Center Opera Company (now the Minnesota Opera) was produced in 1969 at the Guthrie Theatre. Many other arresting compositions, large and small, date from this same period. He was involved with the Minnesota Composers Forum from its earliest years, and served as President of its Board of Directors from 1991 to 1993.

Cynthia meanwhile established herself as one of the premier flutists in the Twin Cities, and the two of them collaborated in producing Martha Stokes (b. 1963), a violinist, saxophonist, and dancer living in California, and Ben Stokes (b. 1965), now a composer and filmmaker in San Francisco.

Of course Eric continued to compose after his retirement. His opera Apollonia's Circus, written with longtime friend and collaborator Al Greenberg, was produced in 1994 at the University with Vern Sutton as director and another old friend, David Zinman, as conductor. One of Eric's last commissions was a large-scale work for chorus, band, and narrator titled Out of the Cradle; its premiere will be given at the University next year. On the day he died, Eric had lunched with Al Greenberg to discuss the new opera on which they were planning to work this summer in Bellagio, Italy.

In all, Eric composed over 80 works, ranging in length from a few minutes to several hours. He received commissions from dozens of the leading orchestras, festivals, and schools in the country, and his compositions have been performed across the United States and abroad.

His was a unique voice in American music. He was a genuine original, justly compared with Ives, Cage, and Henry Brant. A sense of grandeur, a love of nature, and a need for personal freedom were central to both the man and his work. Nicolas Slonimsky, in Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (8th ed.), records that he was "variously described as a crusty, eccentric, wonderfully humorous, very healthy and resourceful American composer of gentle, witty, lyrically accessible music, with a taste for folkloric Americana and a 'Whitmanesque' ear." To this I would add that he possessed a strong narrative gift and a relish for the shape and tang of words - qualities that made his vocal music, in particular, so unforgettable. "