Recent and upcoming performances include: Polar Night for solo flute, premiered by Kazuko Ihara; Three Nocturnes for solo piano, premiered by the composer; Sacred Fire, a duo for clarinet and viola, premiered at the Darmstadt Summer Courses 2023; and a flute concerto, premiered at the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage and The Canadian Embassy in Washington D.C..
Other notable premieres include an orchestral work for the Newark Symphony, Delaware (2018), a piano concerto premiered by Ivo Kaltchev and Newprism Ensemble (Washington DC, 2017), a sextet for New York's ensemble mise-en (2016), and his second violin concerto for SONAR New Music Ensemble (Baltimore, 2015).
New and ‘in progress’ works include a solo for viola, commissioned by Colin Sorgi (violist, Baltimore Symphony), a new cello concerto, supported by a KODA Composition Working Grant (Denmark), a sextet to be premiered in Aarhus in 2025, and a set of songs for coloratura and ensemble.
Robert’s music can be heard on Navona Records (USA) and major streaming services, and is published by SCI Journal of Music Scores (USA), Edition Chanterelle (Germany), and the Canadian Music Centre.
Robert has been a faculty member at numerous universities in Canada and the United States teaching theory and composition courses, first as an Adjunct Lecturer at McGill (2005-2007), Salisbury (2008-2011) and Towson Universities (2011/12), as well as Anne Arundel Community College (2012/13).
From 2013 - 2021 Robert was on the faculty of The Rome School of Music, The Catholic University of America, Washington D.C., first appointed as an Assistant Professor of Theory and Composition and Director/Conductor of the CUA Contemporary Music Ensemble, and became Associate Professor in 2019.
His teaching included courses in harmony, counterpoint, form and analysis from the Renaissance to the present, as well as orchestration and composition at both undergraduate and graduate levels. While at the Rome School, Robert designed several graduate anaylsis courses (including 'Music of the New Viennese,' and 'French Post-tonal Music and Thought'), as well as numerous composition seminar topics involving both technial and aesthetic investigations of music since 1900. Robert was also active inviting ensembles, performers and composers for concerts, lectures and master classes, including Sonar Ensemble, Newprism Ensemble, Daniel Shomper (cellist), and composers David Smooke, Linda Dusman, and Moon Young Ha.
Robert has also been active as a researcher on music of the 20th-Century, particularly the music of Wolfgang Rihm, Pierre Boulez, and Henri Dutilleux, as well as issues of temporality and the perception of musical form.
His published writing includes "The Hunt for Form in Wolfgang Rihm's Ninth String Quartet" (Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 54, no. 1, Winter 2016, 197-244), and "The Spaces and Places of Opera" (Circuit musique contemporaines, Vol. 17, no.3 (December 2007): Musique in situ). He has presented papers at numerous international music and theory conferences in Canada, USA and England including The International Conference on Music Since 1900 (UK), MusCan (Canada), Society of Music Theory (USA), as well as numerous American regional theory societies such as MTSMA, WCCMTA, MTSE, and TSMT. His most recent research includes a study of music temporality in works by Dutilleux and Boulez in relation to connections with contemporary French philosophers, as well as analyses of selected chamber works of Wolfgang Rihm, via set thoery, gestural and paradigmatic analytical approaches.
Robert has conducted standard repertoire from operatic, orchestral, choral and chamber works including: Purcell's Dido and Aeneas (Salisbury University, USA, 2008); Fauré's Requiem, Schubert's Mass in G, D. 167, Vivaldi's Magnificat, Rv. 610 (Toronto, Canada, 1996-98); Bach's Orchestral Suite no. 3, Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on Greensleeves, Corelli's Concerto Grosso, Op. 6, No. 8 "Christmas Concerto" (Brampton, 1997); Charpentier's Messe pour le Samedi de Pâques (Montréal, 2006).
In Denmark, Robert has been guest conductor with both the Herning and Aarhus Amatørsymfoniorkesters and the Ikast-based choir, Den Totale Dekadence (2023). Works included: Franck's d minor symphony, Weber's first clarinet concerto, Haydn's Symphony 103 and first Cello Concerto, Mozart's Overture to Idomeneo, Brahms' Hungarian Dance no. 4., Niels Gade’s Ossian Overture, and numerous choral selections from Haydn and Mozart.
Robert has also specialised in 20th- and 21st-Century repertoire over the past twenty years, and has conducted over thirty contemporary works, including fourteen premieres, for various ensembles in Canada and the United States including toneART ensemble, SONAR New Music Ensemble, and as director of the CUA Contemporary Music Ensemble. In 2012, Robert founded Newprism Ensemble, which has performed in Baltimore, Annapolis and Washington D.C. Conducting highlights include works by Grisey, Boulez, Hosokawa, Abrahamsen, Sørensen, Sciarrino, Murail, Stravinsky, Wen-chung Chou, and Feldman.
Robert received a B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Toronto (1993), an A.R.C.T. Piano Performance Diploma from the Royal Conservatory of Music (1993), and his M.M. and Ph.D. in Composition from McGill University (2004/2009). His principal teachers in composition and theory include John Rea, Jean Lesage, and Christoph Neidhoffer. He has participated in composition Master Classes and lessons with Mark Andre, Hans Thomalla, Brian Ferneyhough, Philippe Leroux, Sarah Nemtsov, Francois Rose, and Klas Torstensson.
In 2020, Robert relocated to Aarhus, Denmark and he currently teaches piano at Herning and Ikast-Brande Music Schools, and continues to be active as a composer, pianist and conductor.
Fall 2024
Robert Andrew Baker (born Toronto, 1970) is a composer, pianist and conductor.
His compositions have been performed on concert series and at festivals and conferences in North America and Europe, including: the Darmstadt Summer Courses (Germany); the St. Magnus, the 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, and FSU Biennial Festival of New Music, and Miami New Music ISCM Festival, New York Mise-en Music Festival (USA).