Andrew Baker

Main instrument: Violin Teaching focus: Violin, string ensembles, school & community string groups Musical influences: Modern Russian violin playing, Stephane Grapelli Career highlights: finishing a performance on three strings when one broke! The instrument you wish you could play: guitar, double bass Scariest stage moment: finishing a performance on three strings when one broke! What’s your favourite thing outside music: Fresh air, good food, spending time with friends & family

Andrew Baker began learning the Violin at the age of 8 at his school, Barker College Sydney, where he ultimately became the school’s first captain of music.

Andrew currently holds the position of Assistant Director & Head of Strings at the Orange Regional Conservatorium in NSW, teaching violin to over 40 students per week in Orange and the surrounding regions. Andrew coaches chamber music ensembles and orchestras, and is concert-master of the Orange Symphony Orchestra. In String Pedagogy, he runs workshops and support programs for regional string teachers and in 2008 presented a seminar ‘Violin Teaching in Regional Communities’ at the Australian Violin Pedagogy conference at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

Andrew’s musical activities extend further to include over 20 performances a year in solo, orchestral and chamber music. These include being concert-master with the Macquarie Philharmonia (Australia’s Inland Symphony Orchestra) and directing ‘Zest Baroque’, which has been invited to perform in the International Baroque Music Festival 'Misiones de Chiquitos' to be held in Bolivia 2008.

Andrew completed his Bachelor of Music degree with Honours at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, studying with Alex Todicescu, where he was awarded the ‘Ginette Neveu Memorial Scholarship for Violinists’. Andrew then travelled to The Netherlands for 3 years to study solo and chamber music with violinists Berent Korfker and Florian Donderer and took part in master classes with Zakhar Bron & Nava Milo. In January 2004 Andrew was the 4th prize winner in the “Maria Yudina international chamber music competition” in St Petersburg, Russia.

One of Andrew’s musical passions lies in Baroque performance practice. Through a grant from the North Netherlands Conservatorium, Andrew studied the art of performing music from the 17th & 18th Centuries on period instruments with some of Europe’s leading early music specialists: Paul Komen, Johann Hoffmann & Bart van Oort.

Andrew’s other musical experiences include master classes with Ralph Kirshbaum, Jamie Laredo, the Ying Quartet and the Brodsky Quartet. He has won scholarships & prizes from the Australian National Academy of Music (Melbourne), the Australian Musician’s Academy and the City of Sydney Cultural Council. He has gained the A.Mus.A with Distinction and the L.Mus.A.