School of Music

Andrea Baker

Andrea Baker
Assistant Professor, Bassoon
Browne 202
Email: AC-Baker2@wiu.edu

Dr. Andrea C. Baker currently serves as the Assistant Professor of Bassoon at Western Illinois University where she is also the bassoonist of the long-standing Camerata Wind Quintet. She also holds the positions of principal bassoon with Opera in the Ozarks and second bassoon with the Richmond Symphony in Indiana.

Previously, she was the instructor of Double Reeds at Georgia Southern University and held the positions of assistant principal/second bassoon with the Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra in Bosnia and Herzegovina and second bassoon with the New England Philharmonic. Recent orchestral performances include the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Alabama Symphony, and Chattanooga Symphony. As a soloist, she was the 2021 winner of the University of Cincinnati wind concerto competition, and the 2017 winner of the Boston Woodwind Society Sherman Walt Merit solo competition.

An avid chamber musician, Dr. Baker is the bassoonist for Some Light Reeding and Panoply Winds: an international touring wind quintet committed to sharing culture through music. Panoply was a guest ensemble in residence at the 2019 Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival in South Africa. In collaboration with clarinetist Bryce Newcomer, Some Light Reeding aims to improve accessibility and equity among developing woodwind students.

She earned her DMA from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and her Master of Music degree from New England Conservatory. She also holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Penn State University, and her principal teachers and mentors include William Winstead, Martin Garcia, Christopher Sales, Richard Svoboda, Daryl Durran, and Shirley Curtiss.