Amanda Baker, flute
Amanda Baker is an interpreter of new sounds who seeks to lift the borders of the perceived sonic confines of classical music. Exploring new timbral possibilities for the flute, Amanda experiments with all members of the traditional flute family in addition to Baroques flutes, ethnic flutes and conceptual flutes such as those created out of plexi-glass. Blending together electric and acoustic elements, Amanda incorporates intricate extended techniques into her playing to create seldom-heard sounds for the flute.
In addition to being a founding member of janus, Amanda is also a member of the United States Coast Guard Band with whom she has toured to the stages of Carnegie Hall, Benaroya Hall (Seattle), Ruth Eckerd Hall (St. Petersberg), Minato Mirai (Yokohama, Japan), and Boettcher Hall (Denver). She has performed in the state funerals of Presidents Ford and Reagan and the Inaugurations of President George W Bush and President Barack Obama.
Prior to her involvement with the Coast Guard Band, Amanda was the Principal flutist of the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra in Southern China. While in China, she learned how to get by with a pocket full of Chinese phrases and expand her culinary preferences.
Amanda has played on the chamber music series of the Newport Music Festival, Hop River Music Festival (CT), Minimum Security Concert Series, The Way to Go Out (Hanover, NH), and Chamber Music Mystic (CT). Additionally, she has given clinics and workshops for Northwestern University, Yale University, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Dartmouth College, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, the New York Youth Symphony and the National Flute Association Convention in Santa Fe. She has been featured on WNPR (Connecticut Public Radio), WPR (Wisconsin Public Radio) and WGDR (Vermont Public Radio). She earned her Bachelor of Music degree from Northwestern University in 1998 and her Master’s in Music from Yale University in 2000. Her teachers include Walfrid Kujala, Richard Graef, Ransom Wilson, and Robert Dick.
