2016 Competition Winner
When drawing up the rules for what would surely become the Guild’s flagship new music competition, the Committee on New Music sought a framework which would best fulfill the goal of reaching out to a broad field of professional composers: composers are asked to propose a commission according to their strengths and interests. The impressive pool of applicants of the 2016 competition and the selection of Claude Baker as the first Pogorzelski-Yankee competition winner has clearly shown the promise of this new framework.
Mr. Baker’s commissioned piece, Sept Hommages, was premiered Sunday March 13, 2016 (3PM) at Indiana University of Pennsylvania—listen to Sept Hommages. At 2:15PM, before the recital, Dr. Baker participated in a half-hour interview with Dr. John Levey, who teaches composition at IUP. He spoke about his music, commented on the composition of Sept Hommages, and took questions from the audience.
Mr. Baker attained his doctoral degree from the Eastman School of Music. He has received numerous honors and awards and now teaches composition at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. His works are published by Lauren Keiser Music and Carl Fischer. For most of his career, he has composed for orchestras where a primary concern has been exploring subtleties of color and combinations of unique and unexpected sounds, a range of coloristic possibilities akin to that of the organ.