Having spent his formative years in rural western Montana, his music is always seeking to capture the expansive energy of this quintessential American landscape. Stark, whose music the New York Times has called, “fetching and colorful,” has been awarded prizes and commissions from organizations such as the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Fromm Foundation at Harvard, Chamber Music America, the Orléans International Piano Competition and ASCAP. Named a 2017 “Rising Star” by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, his music has been performed by such ensembles as Alarm Will Sound, American Composers Orchestra, Arctic Philharmonic, Buffalo Philharmonic, Los Angeles Piano Quartet, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, Momenta Quartet, New Morse Code, FLUX Quartet and the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble.