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RICHARD BAKER

Born in Dudley in 1972, Richard Baker received his first musical education as a chorister in Lichfield Cathedral Choir. After reading music at Exeter College, Oxford, he was awarded a Netherlands Government Scholarship for study with Louis Andriessen at the Royal Conservatory, The Hague. On returning, he completed a PhD with John Woolrich at Royal Holloway, University of London. Richard is currently Fellow-Commoner in Music at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and a Professor of Composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

As conductor Richard Baker has worked with many of the UK’s leading new music ensembles, including BCMG, London Sinfonietta, Britten Sinfonia, Apartment House, Composers Ensemble and [rout]. Having assisted Thomas Adès for the Aldeburgh/Almeida Opera production of The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit in 2002, he has become particularly associated with Gerald Barry’s music, and was invited to conduct the Barry ‘Composer’s Choice’ programme at the National Concert Hall, Dublin the following year. In November 2004, he made his debut at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, conducting the acclaimed German ensemble musikFabrik. In January 2006 he was Musical Director for Labor für Musik:Theater’s production of Franco Evangelisti’s Die Schachtel at the Ultraschall Festival in Berlin.

Picture of Richard Baker

Richard Baker

PRESS QUOTES

SPNM 60 th Birthday Concert, Britten Sinfonia, Spitalfields Festival 21/06/03

Richard Baker certainly gave [the] works the energy and precision needed…

Andrew Clements, Guardian, 24/06/03

…dedicated performances by the Britten Sinfonia, skillfully shaped by conductor Richard Baker…

Nick Kimberley, Evening Standard, 23/06/03

…the Britten Sinfonia, under Richard Baker, were always persuasive advocates.

Geoff Brown, The Times, 24/06/03

Mauricio Kagel Norden/Westen, Composers Ensemble, Aldeburgh Festival, 14/06/03

The Composers Ensemble Portrait concert of Kagel conducted by Richard Baker revealed the different worlds of two pieces from his Compass Rose cycle. Westen (West) climaxed with the percussionist hacking into a log with an axe, showering the Jubilee Hall stage with a confetti of woodchips. What was impressive about this performance was the way these physical gestures were integrated into the musical argument. […] Norden (North) may have been a profound exploration of Arctic cultures, but in the Composers Ensemble’s performance, it was also a compelling sensual experience…

Tom Service, Guardian 17/06/03

The new trio was framed by superbly controlled performances by the Composers ensemble of Kagel’s Norden and Westen…

Hilary Finch, Times, 17/06/03

Admirable performances from the Composers Ensemble under Richard Baker

Barry Millington, Evening Standard, 16/06/03

Gerald Barry Portrait/Triumph of Beauty and Deciet, Composers Ensemble/Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Almeida at King’s Cross, 03/07/02 and 04/07/02

Barry's music was performed on the set of his opera The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit, in the larger of the two King's Cross theatres. But this programme by the Composers Ensemble, under Richard Baker's skilful

direction, was by no means a solid block of Barry. There was music, too, by a composer with whom he says he has "always been in love", Johann Strauss.

We heard three of the latter's waltzes arranged for small ensemble (including harmonium) with devastating effectiveness by Berg and Schoenberg. I sat and listened bound in chains of pleasure.

Paul Driver, The Sunday Times 14/07/02

On the face of it, the Composers Ensemble's portrait concert of Irish composer Gerald Barry contained some bizarre juxtapositions. As well as a selection of his chamber music from the past 25 years, it featured another composer, Johann Strauss, with arrangements of his most famous waltzes.

Connections between Strauss's Viennese confections and Barry's objective, acerbic aesthetic seem remote in the extreme. But Barry professes to a consuming passion for these waltzes, and conductor Richard Baker revealed fascinating musical links between these different soundworlds.

Tom Service, The Guardian 05/07/02

Richard Baker steered these with assurance and was entrusted with the final performance of the Handel/Barry juxtaposition of The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit, which had not been well received at Aldeburgh

Peter Graeme Woolf, Seen and Heard


For further information on Richard Baker or their availability, please send an e-mail to Julia Haferkorn at: info@haferkornassociates.com or contact us via the contact form