Eric Stern is an active and prolific composer writing and arranging for the Vagabond Opera ensemble and other projects. In Portland he was commisioned in 2007 to compose the music for Tears Of Joy Puppet Theatre production of Pinocchio and most recently composed the full-length opera “Queen of Knives” which premiered in Portland.

Before moving to Portland he worked in New Mexico on a production of The Dybbuk and other Stories. Produced In New Mexico, by the Jewish Theater Project, an organization he founded with Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb. Stern was the musical director for the show, writing several short musical pieces, one of the plays, and one full-length composition, as well.

Prior to that, in the summer of 2000, he toured the Canadian Fringe Festival working closely with The Pajama Men of Chicago’s Second City where he, along with Mark Chavez and Shenoah Allen, performed Sabotage, a comedic tour-de-force that the trio wrote, to audiences in Albuquerque, New York City, Toronto, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, and Edmonton, garnering critical acclaim. Mr. Stern composed and performed the music for Sabotage.

He has been the musical director for Theater in the Making (an Albuquerque theater company that works with young people by having them perform the works of Shakespeare) and has composed and performed for the Dionysis in the Round Festival at the University of New Mexico.