Michael Baker

Degrees:
Ph.D. Indiana University 
M.A. University of Kentucky
B.M.E. University of Kentucky

At UK since: 2007

Michael Baker is associate professor of music theory at the University of Kentucky, where he teaches courses on harmony, counterpoint, aural skills, the analysis of musical form, and musical interpretation. His research focuses on text-to-music relationships in song and opera, Schenkerian analysis and interpretation, and the music of Benjamin Britten. His publications appear in music analysis journals such as Theory and Practice, Tempo, College Music Symposium, The Musical Times, The Dutch Journal of Music Theory, The Journal of Schenkerian Studies, and Indiana Theory Review, and he has research forthcoming in a volume on semiotic approaches to opera, to be published by Oxford University Press, and a volume on the analysis of music by women composers, also slated for publication through Oxford University Press. He has presented his research several times at the Society for Music Theory, the Semiotic Society of America, the European Music Analysis Conference (EuroMAC), and at various other national and international conferences on music analysis and interpretation.
 
Michael is also an avid horn player, and performs in several local and civic ensembles in and around Lexington, KY, including regular positions in the Lexington Brass Band and the Capital City Community Band, and has also recently performed as part of the Lexington Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra Enigmatique (Louisville), and the Sacred Winds Ensemble. During the summer months he teaches music courses for a study-abroad program for music majors based in Salzburg, Austria. He is currently serving as director of graduate studies for the University of Kentucky School of Music and serves on numerous master’s degree and doctoral advisory committees, both within the School of Music and as outside examiner for other colleges.