Dr. Stern commenced his studies in composition at the Juilliard School with Stanley Wolfe. He later received a Bachelor of Music at The Mannes College of Music, an Master of Arts from Queens College and a Ph.D. from The Graduate Center of CUNY. Dr. Stern has also studied composition with George Perle and Arthur Berger, and taught music theory at the Mannes College of Music, University of North Texas , Ball State University and Claremont Colleges. Dr. Stern worked as a freelance composer, orchestrator, songwriter in Los Angeles, including work for film composer Fred Karlin and served as personal assistant the legendary Peggy Lee. Dr. Stern has published articles on Bach, Mozart, and Renaissance music, and lectured for the Society for Music Theory, the American Musicological Society. He had two orchestral compositions premiered at Ball State University in fall of 2002, his Symphony No. 1, and Da Vinci's Wings of Flight. The Lyrical Concerto for Soprano Saxophone and Chamber Orchestra was premiered at Ball State University in November 2008.
