Discipline: Music Composition

Eric Stokes

Discipline: Music Composition
Region: Minneapolis, MN
MacDowell Fellowships: 1962
Eric Stokes (1930 – 1999) was a composer whose work spanned an eclectic range of influences and styles. Stokes is best remembered for his seven operas, many of which premiered at the Minnesota Opera. His first opera, Horspfal, is a collage of voices, instruments, and film requiring up to five different conductors. Stokes’ Rock & Roll (Phonic Paradigm I) calls for rocks to be hit together and rolled across the stage. His music was a reflection of his life and personality: eccentric and humorous with an ability to blur the lines between fantasy and reality.

Studios

Veltin

Eric Stokes worked in the Veltin studio.

Veltin Studio was donated by alumni of the Veltin School, a school for girls in New York with a highly respected visual arts department. As the plaque just outside the entrance attests, this studio was used by poet Edwin Arlington Robinson during most of the 24 summers he spent at MacDowell. Perhaps most famously, Thornton Wilder put the finishing…

Learn more