Eric Starr – An Unabridged Biography
Eric Starr has led a busy and eclectic musical career performing a wide variety of musicals styles throughout his life. He was raised a third generation musician in Western New York. He began studying music at age 6 and was performing professionally by his teens. Among others, Starr has studied drums with the legendary jazz drummer Joe Morello (Dave Brubeck, Marian McPartland).
Starr is a three-time recipient of the prestigious Meet the Composer Grant and the 2005 co-recipient of the Utah Arts Council Grant. From 2000-2003, he was commissioned by Artemis & The Wild Things Inc. to compose chamber music for NYC productions of William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Hamlet, Romeo & Juliet, and Macbeth. In 2007, Starr completed The Stones of Carnac, a chamber piece for tenor saxophone and string quartet. The piece received its world premier at The Lighthouse, Poole’s Centre for the Arts, on November 9th, 2007 featuring Iain Ballamy (saxophone) and the Pavao String Quartet. He’s currently writing a four-movement orchestral work entitled The Windsong of Crazy Horse.
Starr is also a non-fiction author. In 2003, Starr completed his first major publication, The Everything Drums Book®. Thousands of copies have been sold worldwide, and recently, his book has been translated into Spanish by Robinbook publishers in Barcelona, Spain. Additional publications include: The Everything Rock and Blues Piano Book® (2007), The Everything Bass Guitar Book® co-authored with his brother Nelson (2008), The Everything Rock Drums Book® (due out January 2009) and The Everything Music Composition Book® (due out August 2009). All five of books are commissions from Adams Media Corporation (F+W Publications).
As a drummer, performance highlights include recordings and/or stage appearances with artists as diverse as The Chieftains (w/ Los Lobos), Dominic Miller (Sting), Iain Ballamy (Gil Evans, Bill Bruford’s Earthworks), Jim Rotondi (Toshiko Akiyoshi), Kenny Ascher (John Lennon, 1979 Oscar nominee for The Rainbow Connection), Bobby Militello (Dave Brubeck), The Tails (art rock band), Graham Maby (Joe Jackson), Ezra Reich (pop artist), James Carter (Sony Recording artist), Don “Red” Menza (Buddy Rich Orchestra), Al Tinney (Charlie Parker), Rick Germanson (Louis Hayes), Roseanna Vitro (Telarc Recording Artist), and dozens of other internationally recognized musicians.
Starr has also performed at numerous music festivals throughout North America including the Connecticut Jazz Festival, Undercurrents (Cleveland), Beaches Jazz Festival (Toronto), North by Northwest (Toronto), South by Southwest (Austin), Edenfest (Ontario), June in Buffalo, The Nickel City Jazz Festival (Western New York), the North American New Music Festival (Western New York), and the CMJ Music Festival (New York City).
Additionally, Starr is a regular in New York City’s jazz and rock scenes and has performed at various clubs and music halls throughout the Big Apple. Among them, he has appeared at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music), The Knitting Factory (main stage), Smoke, Lennox Lounge, St. Nicks Pub, Cornelia Street Café, Mercury Lounge, Arlene’s Grocery, Sin-e, Pianos, The Living Room, The Bitter End, Smalls, The Triad, The Coral Room, Brownies, The Continental, Galapagos, and Tonic to name a select few. His group was also the house band at Flute Gramercy, a New York City landmark, from 2002-2005 and he has performed at City Hall for Borough President C. Virginia Fields.
Starr’s “solo” debut SHE received radio play and/or record reviews in the United States, Europe, and Russia. Among others, The Buffalo News wrote that “Starr is establishing himself as a major player in modern jazz.” www.bestofwny.com called Starr “A music prodigy.” Muze Inc.—a global leader in entertainment information—called Starr an “accomplished composer…who would have made Antonio Carlos Jobim proud,” and Jazz Dimensions in Berlin called SHE “a beautiful, inspired debut album.”
Following the release of SHE, Starr was twice interviewed by America’s original “shock jock,” Joey Reynolds. The interviews aired coast-to-coast on the WOR Radio Network. In 2004, the group kicked off the release of SHE with a sold-out concert at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City followed by additional dates in NYC and Western New York.
Eric Starr resides in Manhattan and is an official endorser of Bosphorus Cymbals, Regal Tip drumsticks, Evans drumheads, and HQ Percussion, and Planet Wave accessories.
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