Ernie Stires worked as a volunteer teaching basic music theory and composition to young musicians in his community but begun improvising jazz on the piano when he was young.
He also worked as a volunteer teaching basic music theory and composition to young musicians in his community. Although he had begun improvising jazz on the piano while still a small child, he did not devote himself to music as a career until 1962 when he studied composition with Nicolas Slonimsky and Francis Judd Cooke. 
