Drew Baker - Composer

Drew Baker is a Chicago-based composer and pianist. His compositional output exists primarily within the art music genre and includes works for standard instrumentations such as solo piano, chamber ensembles and orchestra as well as unusual groupings such as two pianos and water percussion, live and pre-recorded Thai Gong, and amplified piano.  Baker’s compositions have been performed by The Talea Ensemble, International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Ensemble Dal Niente, The Group for Contemporary Music, Ensemble21, and Chicago Chamber Musicians.  Performances of his works have taken place at venues such as the Festival d’Automne à Paris (IRCAM), The Guggenheim Museum New York (Works & Process Series), Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Zankel Hall, Pittsburgh’s Music on the Edge series, the Musica Nova Helsinki Festival, Music Gallery of Toronto, Music Harvest Festival in Denmark and Montclair State University. A recording of Baker's complete piano music performed by Marilyn Nonken is now available on the New Focus label.

Baker earned a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from the Eastman School of Music, a Master of Music in Composition from Rice University and a Doctor of Music in Composition from Northwestern University. His primary composition teachers have included Marti Epstein, Augusta Read Thomas, Shih-Hui Chen, Karim Al-Zand and Jason Eckardt. He studied piano with Douglas Humpherys and Jeanne Kierman Fischer. Baker currently teaches composition at Columbia College in Chicago.