In Wednesday’s (8/17) Belleville News-Democrat (Illinois), Teri Maddox reports that Robert Hart Baker has been “hired as music and artistic director of Belleville Philharmonic Society and conductor of its orchestra and chorale.” He “signed a five-year contract to fill the vacancy left by Robert Charles Howard, who led Belleville Philharmonic for 21 years before retiring in April and moving to Colorado.” Baker, 62, “has conducted the St. Louis Philharmonic Orchestra for 34 years and served as principal guest conductor with Asheville Lyric Opera Company in North Carolina since 2004. He’s an oboe instructor at Lindenwood [University] in St. Charles, Mo., conductor of the Cadenza Orchestra of St. Charles County Youth Orchestra, music director laureate of Harrisburg Choral Society and Symphony Orchestra and York Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Pennsylvania, and conductor laureate of Asheville Symphony Orchestra.” A native of New York City, Baker studied conducting privately with Leonard Bernstein for two years before going on to earn a bachelor’s degree in music at Harvard and two master’s degrees and a doctorate in orchestral conducting at Yale, “in addition to European training.”
Posted August 18, 2016
