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Robert A. Baker

 
CountryCanada
OccupationComposer, Conductor, Teacher
CategoriesClassical, Contemporary

Composer Robert A. Baker (born 1970, Toronto, Canada) believes in stylistic pluralism,
and strives for the articulation of musical form principally through the control of fluctuating degrees of musical pulse. At the heart of Baker’s aesthetics is a deep fascination with issues of listener perception, expectation, time and memory.

Baker’s music has been performed in Canada by numerous performers and presenters including
Esprit Orchestra, The Standing Wave Ensemble, the Composer’s Quartet, The New Guitar, Elgin String Trio, The Great Lakes Duo, and toneART ensemble (of which Baker is a founding member). Baker’s music has also been performed in the United States, Wales, Italy and the Czech Republic, and most recently, at the St. Magnus Festival, Scotland. Selections of Baker's works have been broadcast on CBC*SRC Radio Canada, and featured on the playlist of TEM (Taukay Edizione Musicali) Italian Web Radio.

Commercial recordings of Baker’s music are available on classical guitarist Danielle Cumming’s 2001 début CD, Postcards (cuerdas 701), and the self-titled 2003 recording by toneART ensemble (tA 1103-2). A third CD of
Baker’s music is currently in production and scheduled for release in the winter of 2010. (To hear excerpts from these recordings, click here or on the DISCOGRAPHY tab above.)

A winner in “Jihlava 2000” International Choral Composition Competition of the Czech Republic, Baker served in the same festival the following year as an International Jury Member and the test piece composer. In 2004, his String Quartet #1: Releasing Anamnesis was selected for the Canadian Contemporary Music Workshop and
premiered in Toronto by the Composer’s Quartet. Two years later, with the same work, Baker was a finalist in the 6th International Composition Competition, “Città di Udine”, Italy. In 2007, the Ontario region of the Canadian Music
Centre selected Baker’s violin concerto, Wings and Engines , as one of two orchestral works chosen for the 2007 CMC Professional Readings Series, which was presented by Esprit Orchestra in Toronto with Maire Bérard as soloist.

Baker is an experienced conductor of orchestras and choirs, and most recently conducted Salisbury University’s spring 2008 production of Dido and Aeneas from the harpsichord.

Baker completed his PhD in Composition in November 2008 studying under composer John Rea at McGill University in Montréal, Canada.

Currently Baker is on faculty at Salisbury University, Maryland, USA.

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