As well as being a premier concert technician preparing pianos for performance and recording (Billy Joel (3 albums)), Chick Corea, Richard Goode, Herbie Hancock, and hundreds of others), Jeffrey Baker is an urban philosopher and contemporary classical composer who has written a number of books of mystical philosophy and composed more than 100 pieces of music for piano, soloist, choir, chamber and full orchestra. In 1988, his piano concerto, Rhapsody for a New Age, was performed by The Manhattan Chamber Orchestra at Symphony Space in New York City. In 1990, his musical, Psyche, was presented at The Douglas Fairbanks Theatre on 42nd St. In 1995, The Village Voice called his underscore for Sri Chinmoy's Siddhartha Becomes the Buddha at off-broadway's One Dream Theatre, “hypnotizing” and The Stranger said, “Wonderfully composed; I was amazed by it.” In 1997, he was honored with a “Meet The Composer” lecture and concert at Western Connecticut State University. "Wonderful, spiritual, and lyrical," wrote W.B. Bernstein, Dean of Music there. The Music of the Zodiac, his classical journey through the zodiacal signs for 12 instruments and percussion has had tens of thousands of downloads. A recent reading at The Actors' Guild in New York City of his play about Leo Tolstoy, adapted from Gorky's Reminisciences and co-written by Sondra Lee, featured Dick Cavett.
Margaret Astrup, soprano
Maria Cisyk, piano
Emily Dickinson was a mystical poet who lived a solitary life, something best captured, I felt, by a soprano soloist and piano. Especially where the piano not only accompanies but creates a contemplative atmosphere.
This is my underscore for Sri Chinmoy’s play about the life of the Buddha which was presented at the One Dream Theatre in New York City in 1995
Richard Clark, violin
Maria Cisyk, piano
I’m a fan of the music of India as well as the Old Time Country music of America and combined my love of both in this piece for violin and piano composed in the traditional three movement form of European classical music.
A friend who was an astrologer suggested I write something like Holst’s Planets but for the signs and more than that, make it a journey through the zodiacal year from Aires to Pisces. I took that farther and composed it for a chamber orchestra of 12 plus percussion, and beginning with C, traversed the twelve major musical keys along the way. Aleona Records produced and it was recorded live at Edison Studios in New York City over a weekend in 1993.
This is the recording made in 1990, as the result of a grant I received to orchestrate and record a few selections from my musical Psyche.
These 3 pieces for violin and soprano were written for Eric Lewis, first violinist in the original Manhattan String Quartet and a member of the faculty of Western Connecticut State University, and Margaret Astrup, soprano, who taught opera there as well and recorded live at my “Meet The Composer” recital in the spring of 1995 (hence the title and vibe)
Maria Cisyk (1945-2003) a concert pianist with master degrees in performance from both Juilliard and Yale, was my musical champion for more than 15 years. Not only performing my works at various places around the world but recording many as well. These are those recordings.
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