BARBARA WESLEY BAKER

Barbara Wesley Baker, internationally noted conductor and educator, conducts the Chamber, Women’s, Men’s, Concert  and Gospel Choirs at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C. Her choirs have won numerous first place trophies and superior ratings at state, national and international festivals. Dr. Baker frequently presents sessions at division and national conventions of the American Choral Directors Association, the Music Educators National Conference, and the American Orff-Schulwerk Association. She conducted master classes at the Toronto International Music Festival and the Choral Music Experience/British Choral Institute, Hertfordshire, England for Dr. Doreen Rao. Dr. Baker conducted the 2000 ACDA Eastern Division High School Honor Choir, and her Chamber Choir performed with Dave Brubeck at the 2000 MENC National Convention in Washington, D.C. She has guest-conducted state and regional honor choirs in Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Washington State, and Virginia, as well as in Canada.  Dr. Baker has taught and conducted secondary school students in Limerick and Dublin, Ireland for the Royal Dublin Society. Dr. Baker has taught at the Hartt School of Music, McDaniel College (formerly Western Maryland College) and at the Brightleaf  Music Workshop at Duke University. From 2001-2003, Dr. Baker co-music directed The Choral Arts of Washington’s Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Choral Tribute at the John F. Kennedy Center.  Her Women’s Choir performed on the 2003 program as a featured choir.

Dr. Baker earned her Bachelor of Music degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro; the M.A. degree from Teachers College, Columbia University, N.Y.; and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Maryland. While completing her doctorate, she was selected as an American Association of University Women Research Fellow.  She has published articles in scholarly journals, including The College Music Society, and contributed material on Black Gospel music to several textbooks. She contributed to MENC's "Teacher to Teacher, A Music Educator's Survival Guide."She was honored as the Outstanding Secondary Vocal Music Teacher in Maryland in 1991 and as the 1998 Maryland Distinguished Woman in the Arts. She is past president of the Maryland American Choral Directors Association chapter and served on the Advisory Board for the music education publication, Teaching Music.  For the past 26 years, Dr. Baker has directed the Colesville United Methodist Church Gospel Choir. She is married and is the proud parent of a Yale University graduate.

School Phone:  301-513-5400, ext. 301

e-mail:  bbaker@pgcps.org