Stires' mother also sang opera, but her career ended when she married his father, an Episcopal minister. With so much music in the family, it was only natural that young Ernie be given piano lessons. But they didn't work out. But I could play hot piano licks by ear. Freed from the constraints of formal training, he continued to soak up sounds on his own, especially big band jazz.
Stires does a little hip-shake, getting into the rhythm.
It took Stires a while to move from listening to writing his own music. First he joined the Navy, then he married his first wife, had three children, and worked at various jobs in media sales. Stires' composition teachers included Nicholas Slonimsky, an absurdist composer and tonal explorer. The Stires have lived in Vermont since the early 1970s. While Judith works as vice president of a Burlington investment counseling firm, Ernie composes jazz-infused numbers for solo voice, chorus, solo instruments, chamber ensembles, symphony orchestra and theater.