Renee' Baker
Violinist Samuel Thompson sends us an article on Renee' Baker:
Mr. Zick - I trust that this finds you well and enjoying the
summer. Many thanks to you for having taken the time to include me as
one of the many people about whom you write at Africlassical.com.
As you may know, I have been doing a fair amount of writing
over the past few years, and recently had an opportunity to speak with
and write about Renee Baker. This is a very recent piece, and she did
ask if I could send it to you for inclusion on your site.
All best,
Samuel Thompson
TRAILBLAZER: one word to describe
Renee'
Baker. The words “polyproductive” and
“prolific” can also be used to describe Ms. Baker, founder and
music director of the Chicago
Modern Orchestra Project. During the final months of
the 2012/2013 season Ms. Baker conducted the premieres of three
original compositions inspired by the life and work of Mark Rothko
and recently received the Charles E. Walton Black Music Month Award
from Chicago’s Vivian G. Harsh Society.
Renee' Baker is a very active figure in
the cultural life of Chicago, having been a member of the Chicago
Sinfonietta since 1987 and having appeared as soloist,
chamber musician and orchestral musician throughout Chicago,
including a Ravinia debut as viola soloist in Strauss’ Don
Quixote, partnering with John Sharp, cellist of Chicago Symphony
Orchestra. In tandem with her career performing “traditional
classical music”, Ms. Baker has been making great strides both as a
conductor and as a composer of modern music.
Ms. Baker is a person who maintains a
deep sense of reverence to those who were influential in her
development as an artist. “I am incredibly grateful to Paul
Freeman for serving as a stalwart mentor to me as a conductor,
composer and musician,” she said. “I was groomed over 25 years
in the Chicago Sinfonietta – Paul first hired me as a violist in
the orchestra in 1987 when it was founded, and was the first
conductor both to ask for and premiere two symphonies that I had
written.”
Those premieres include the October
2010 world premiere of Ms. Baker’s “Sundown’s Promise”
- a thirteen section work inspired by the Japanese rice harvest and
spotlighted by Japanese Taiko drums – and the May 2011 premiere of
“Divertimento Notte blu” for Orchestra and six jazz
soloists. Commissioned by the Chicago Sinfonietta, both works
received great critical acclaim, and the May 2011 premiere of
“Divertimento Notte blu” marked another high point in Ms.
Baker’s steadily growing career, as it was in that performance that
she made her Symphony Center debut as a conductor of the Chicago
Sinfonietta.
To have been the recipient of such a
tremendous opportunity from a mentor was indescribable for Ms. Baker,
as both premieres took place during Maestro Freeman’s final season
as music director of the orchestra that he founded. Symbolically,
one could refer to that season as Mr. Freeman’s “passing the
baton” to an emerging visionary. It was also during the
2010/2011 season that Ms. Baker was hailed as “the latest AACM
(Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) visionary”
by Downbeat Magazine.
Renee' Baker is definitely riding a
wave, becoming one of the influential and important proponents of
modern music of the twenty-first century. In recent years, new music
ensembles including Washington DC’s Great Noise Ensemble, the
International Contemporary Ensemble and three-time Grammy Award
winning Eighth Blackbird (also based in Chicago) have captured the
attention of concertgoers and musicians worldwide. Renee' Baker and
the Chicago Modern Orchestra Project are soon to join the ranks of
the aforementioned ensembles, as CMOP is now positioned to establish
a true international presence and reputation the go-to orchestra both
for new music and for composers of color.
The reverence that Ms. Baker holds for
her mentors is in tandem with her insatiable curiosity. “About
seven years ago I started looking at both the Boston Modern Orchestra
Project and the American Composers Orchestra, as I wondered if both
those groups and orchestras that were programming ‘traditional
classical music’ were attracting audiences for modern music.”
Continuing, she shared that in the formative years of the Chicago
Modern Orchestra Project she purposefully sought out people who were
at the top of their game and who had an authentic interest in what
she was trying to learn. “These people, some of the most foremost
jazz and creative musicians - including composer and MacArthur
Foundation Fellowship recipient Anthony Braxton and flutist/composer
and Doris Duke artist Nicole Mitchell - were able to answer the
questions that I had.”
The Chicago Modern Orchestra Project is
a special ensemble in many ways. “I believe in inclusion,”
Renee' said, “and many of these people are people that I have been
grooming since 1991. We have managed to marry the best of
traditional classical musicians and the best of the avant-garde jazz
players in Chicago, and we’re rapidly increasing our reach outside
of the United States. CMOP’s roster includes musicians who are
also members of the Chicago Sinfonietta, and freelance with the
Chicago Lyric Opera, Chicago Symphony, Chicago Opera Theatre, Joffrey
Ballet Orchestra and many other fine ensembles. This is why we can
do absolutely authentic presentations of classical music, jazz
and modern concert music. I am able to get a flavor that most
ensembles are not able to.” With CMOP, Ms. Baker has shown
herself to be a leader in developing true orchestral diversity, as no
other orchestra in the United States can boast the authentic
inclusiveness of the ensemble in both musical expertise and
demographic: in addition to being an awesome mix of classical and
jazz musicians, CMOP membership is a true reflection of our nation’s
ethnic diversity.
“During our first season, we
presented a total of fifteen concerts including both large ensemble
concerts and smaller community concerts. The ensemble has
performed at both Dominican University and the South Shore Cultural
Center, and our first ‘laboratory’ was held at Velvet Lounge.”
Ms. Baker’s belief in inclusion pervades the work of the Chicago
Modern Orchestra Project, as CMOP has since its inception premiered
an average of ten works each season, including compositions by Ms.
Baker and others received through the ensemble’s open score
project. “It is truly wonderful not only to have created an
opportunity to continuously hone my skills as a composer, but also to
constantly introduce fresh music to our audience.”
Ms. Baker’s reach as composer has
grown steadily over many years. Her works have been performed by
groups including the Chicago Sinfonietta Chamber Ensemble, Southeast
Symphony (Los Angeles), DanceWright Project (San Francisco), Great
Black Music Ensemble /AACM(premiered in Umbria, Italy, 2009) and
presented both by the Joffrey Ballet Chamber Series and the Museum of
Contemporary Art/Chicago. Ms. Baker continues to secure
performances of her works both nationally and internationally,
including the upcoming 2014 premiere of “blu Samsara” in Zolle
(Netherlands) and the anticipated premiere of “Sunyata” in 2015.
In recent years, CMOP has garnered
attention from many people and organizations dedicated to the
composition and performance of modern music, and the 2013-14 season
will mark the beginning of a three-year period of great expansion.
Between 2013 and 2016 the ensemble is slated to present an exciting
assortment of new works by some of the most interesting and
innovative composers working today.
“Our 2013/2014 season begins with the
premiere of my Simple Consciousness: Painted Scores Exploratorium
at Chicago’s Out of Line Gallery,” Ms. Baker said, “and during
that season we shall also give the Chicago premiere of Nicole
Mitchell’s When Life's Door Opens for Chamber Orchestra and 3
Vocalists. This piece was commissioned and premiered in New
York by the Tri-Centric Orchestra and Nicole, having very deep roots
in Chicago, offered us the chance to give the Chicago Premiere.”
The organization New Music USA has also paired CMOP with 2008 Rome
Prize finalist Gregg Wramage for a series of premieres to take place
between January 2014 and May 2015. The three year period 2013-2016
also includes works by UK-based composers Mark Yeats (who has
recently become Composer-In-Association with Atlanta’s Chamber
Cartel) and Alistair Zaldua.
When asked how she manages such an
involved, diverse and innovative career, Renee answered in very
simple yet profound manner: “You find time to eat, right? For
the things that are vital to our existence – that we identify as
vital – we find time. This is all about quality of life – a
life filled with art, and creativity. If you are a cultural
creative, everything is open to you.”
As they stand on the precipice of
tremendous growth, everything is definitely open both for Renee'
Baker and the Chicago Modern Orchestra Project – a woman and an
organization that stand for growth, discovery, inclusion, and true
openness.
- Samuel Thompson
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