Michael Conway Baker

Baker is among the foremost composers in Canada, composing within a predominantly tonal idiom with abundant melodies, affluent harmonies, inventively treated traditional forms, and professional orchestration. The boy of vaudeville and radio comedian Phil Baker, Michael Conway Baker was created March 13, 1937 in Western world Palm Seaside, Florida. He previously a nomadic years as a child and went to 13 institutions in 12 years in america and Canada. By using an archive collection and afterwards a piano, he trained himself the fundamentals of musical theory. After senior high school graduation and some odd careers, he made a decision in 1958 to go to Vancouver, United kingdom Columbia, that was his mother’s indigenous town. There he started formal piano research. Within a season, he exceeded the exterior examinations from the London University of Music. Baker continued to study structure at the University or college of Uk Columbia with Jean Coulthard and Elliot Weisgarber, and in 1966 he received a bachelor of music level. Compositionally, Baker discovered himself completely beyond your educational and insitutionalized avant-garde music of your day. While additional composers in the 1960s utilized chance or numerical formulas to create music, Baker’s music continued to be rooted in melody, tranquility and type. One useful summary of Baker’s design was expressed from the composer himself, in his feedback about his personal Symphony No. 1 of 1977: “Regarding the ‘design’ from the Symphony, I could only say it really is my very own. I adhere to no ‘ism’ and create what convinces me. Without doubt you will see those who discover this Symphony — along with my additional compositions — hopelessly traditional. You will find clearly delineated styles and, although I avoid key signatures any longer, the music is usually tonal, even though the tonal centres change, as they frequently do. I seldom use ‘results’ however when I actually do for the reason that I feel a particular musical want.” Aside from a season of research with Lennox Berkeley in Britain, Baker has continuing to reside in in the Vancouver region. He became a resident of Canada in 1970, and he gained a Expert of Arts level from Traditional western Washington State University in 1972. Despite the fact that the primary centers of musical activity in Canada are in Montreal and Toronto, Baker discovers the environment around Vancouver even more vital that you his motivation. Although Baker offers created for a number of different press, central to his result are his functions for the concert hall. Included in these are the Concerto for Flute and Strings of 1974, the Concerto for Piano and Chamber Orchestra of 1976; the Symphony No. 1 of 1977, and his full-length ballet Washington Square of 1978, that was created for the Country wide Ballet of Canada and predicated on the book by Henry Adam. He in addition has created chamber music, piano parts and vocal functions. A lot of Baker’s most acclaimed music continues to be for films, like the Gray Fox, One Magic Xmas, and John as well as the Missus. His Fanfare to Expo 86 opened up the proceedings of this Vancouver world’s reasonable, and he created scores for movies shown in a variety of specific pavilions there. In 1992 Baker gained a Juno award for Greatest Classical Structure for his Concerto for Piano and Chamber Orchestra, that was performed by Robert Silverman on the Compact disc released by CBC Information on its SM-5000 label in August 1991. Baker offers taught programs in film music in the University or college of English Columbia and continues to be honored as you of its 75 exceptional graduates of days gone by 75 years. He offers created music for CBC tv programs and offers coordinated college music workshops as composer-in-residence for the Vancouver college board.