[1] In 1968, Staar completed guest studies at the Sibelius Academy with Anja Ignatius (violin) and Izumi Tateno (piano).
In Vienna he continued his training with Alfred Uhl (composition), Erich Urbanner (twelve-tone music) and Francesco Valdambrini (Neue Musik) and began conducting studies with Hans Swarowsky and Karl Österreicher in 1972.
From 1977, he took master classes with Nathan Milstein in Zurich and completed postgraduate studies with Roman Haubenstock-Ramati in 1981, receiving further impulses from Leonard Bernstein.
[4] In 1987, he founded the "Ensemble Wiener Collage" with Eugene Hartzell [de] and Erik Freitag, which is dedicated to the interpretation of contemporary works, especially by Austrian composers.
With the Ensemble Wiener Collage he performed compositions by Mozart and contemporary composers in Japan and the United States in 1991.