Robert Hart Baker

rdf:langString Robert Hart Baker

rdf:langString Robert Hart Baker (born March 19, 1954) is a symphonic and operatic conductor and music director based in York, Pennsylvania, United States. He has toured extensively in the U.S., Canada, and abroad. Among the many concerts he has led have been the full works of the Beethoven, Brahms, Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky symphonies and the Strauss tone poems, in addition to most of the orchestral works of Mahler, Dvorak, Schubert, Debussy, Ravel, Poulenc, and Ernest Bloch. Artists with whom he has performed include pianists Joaquín Achúcarro, Alexander Peskanov, Valentina Igoshina and Christopher O'Riley; violinists Joshua Bell, Sarah Chang, Pamela Frank, Eugene Drucker, Ilya Kaler and Xiang Gao; violist Paul Neubauer; cellists Carter Brey, Yo-Yo Ma, David Finckel, Zuill Bailey and Paul Tobias; flutist James Galway; French hornist Richard Todd, trumpeter David Hickman, baritone Sherrill Milnes; soprano Angela Brown; bass-baritone Justino Diaz and many other acclaimed artists. He has guest conducted at Radio City Music Hall and for the Spoleto U.S.A. and appeared at Carnegie Hall. Baker won a 1977 Composition Award from the National Federation of Music Clubs, and ASCAP contemporary music programming awards with New York Youth Symphony in 1977 and the York (PA) Symphony Orchestra in 1986. The St. Louis Philharmonic under Baker's direction won a 2004 Telly Award for best classical local cable TV production. Baker has also performed as an oboist. He has been involved in several community outreach programs usually sponsored by his various orchestras. He has served as visiting professor at the University of North Carolina-Asheville, Mars Hill College, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, and the State University of New York. He has also been involved in outreach programs through the North Carolina School of the Arts, Penn State York, and the Logos Academy.