home
| Robert Baker |
 Baker’s
music has been performed by orchestras, ensembles, choirs, and soloists
in North America and Europe, and has been programmed on numerous
concert series, festivals, and conferences including: St. Magnus, York
Spring New Music, and Didsbury Arts Festivals (UK); Jihlava 2001
International Choral Festival (Czech Republic); Festival "Giuseppe
Rosetta" 1998 (Italy); Canadian Contemporary Music Workshop, Canadian
Music Centre Professional Readings Series, and New Music North (
Canada); Society of Composers, Inc., College Music Society, FSU Biennial
Festival of New Music, and Miami New Music ISCM Festival (USA).An award winner and finalist in international competitions, including “Jihlava 2000” International Choral Composition Competition (Czech Republic), the 6th International Composition Competition, “Città di Udine” 2006 (Italy), Free Style Composition Competition (England), and Choral Arts Ensemble Minnesota (USA), Baker’s music has been supported by the Maryland State and Toronto Arts Councils, broadcast by CBC Radio Canada, and featured on TEM (Taukay Edizione Musicali) Italian Web Radio. Numerous commercial recordings of his music have been made by artists and ensembles such as classical guitarist Danielle Cumming, toneART ensemble (Canada), the University Choir of Pardubice (Czech Rep.), and Chiasmus Ensemble (England). His first string quartet is included on the recent 2010 ISCM Canadian Section Selected Works CD, and a new recording devoted to his recent solo and chamber music is scheduled for release in 2012. An experienced conductor of chamber, orchestral, and choral music, Baker has appeared as guest conductor for the Brampton and Scarborough Cathedral Bluffs Orchestras (Canada), and in 2008 he conducted the Salisbury University (MD) production of Dido and Aeneas from the harpsichord. Baker is also an active researcher on contemporary music analysis and philosophies on the perception of musical time and form. His research and theories on operatic spatiotemporality have led to a published article (“Spaces and Places of Opera,” Circuit musiques contemporaines, 17 no. 3 (December 2007), and paper presentations at College Music Society conferences in the United States, an organization for which he currently serves as Composition Area Chair for the Mid-Atlantic Region. His principal degrees include a Ph.D. and M.Mus. in composition (McGill, 2009 and 2004) where his principal teachers were John Rea and Jean Lesage, a B.Mus. in theory (Toronto, 1993) and an A.R.C.T. in Piano Performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto, 1993). He has taught undergraduate theory and composition related courses at McGill (2004-2007), and Salisbury (2008-2011) Universities, and joined the faculty at Towson in fall 2011. His personal website is: www.robertabaker.net Office: CA 4053 |