The Baker & Baker series is devoted to highlighting diverse musical performances, ranging from baroque music with harpsichords to avant-garde music played with non-traditional materials and showcases musical excellence in its many forms.
Upcoming Events
Recorded October 3, 2023
Baker and Baker Presents The Amernet String Quartet and Friends
Host musicians mezzo-soprano Rachel Calloway, tenor Dominic Armstrong, and pianist Phillip Bush welcome the Amernet String Quartet for a concert inspired by the CMA Collection. Calloway and Armstrong designed this original program of music written about and surrounding World Wars I and II, featuring selections from several composers including Charles Ives, Vaughan Williams, and Samuel Barber. The Amernet String Quartet, currently based in Miami and visiting South Carolina as part of a residency with USC School of Music, play for the CMA audience at this exclusive performance.
Baker & Baker presents An Immersive Opera from Nathan Felix
Enjoy this short documentary about the creation of the immersive opera "The Great Hurricane" by composer Nathan Felix at The Columbia Museum of Art on 4/20/23. Film via Nathan Felix's YouTube channel.
Recorded March 22, 2023
Baker & Baker presents The Southern Pines featuring Quiana Parler
Dr. Colleen Clark, newly appointed assistant professor of jazz studies at USC, presents her newest band, The Southern Pines, featuring Ranky Tanky’s Quiana Parler. In collaboration with some of the Southeast’s finest jazz musicians, Clark debuts this brand-new, all-female collaboration with inspiration from life in South Carolina and work from Our Own Work Our Own Way: Ascendant Women Artists from the Johnson Collection.
Recorded November 17, 2022
Baker & Baker presents Zion: A Composition.
Zion is a multifaceted artistic experience seen and heard in four acts. Composed by Saul Seibert, each musical arrangement is also expressed in a multimedia art installment. Utilizing a tremendous cast of players from the Carolinas to assist with the orchestrations, Zion is a plethora of musical styles with influences including Indian ragas, psychedelia, heavy metal, jazz, electronica, and blues. Its members include Marshall Brown on keyboard, Zach Seibert on guitar and soundscapes, Sean Thomson on sitar and mandolin, Kevin Brewer on percussion, Darren Woodlief on bass, and Saul Seibert on guitar. The full composition is being released throughout this summer as individual singles accompanied by visual art. Ash Lennox and Virginia Russo are contributing multimedia artists for the live performance.
Recorded March 9, 2022
Baker and Baker presents Artist and Muse
Duo Cortona — mezzo-soprano Rachel Calloway and violinist Ari Streisfeld — is joined by cellist Claire Bryant for a concert inspired by Auguste Rodin. Rodin’s lifelong study of antiquity finds voice in the music of Bach, while the milieu of fin-de-siecle Paris takes shape through artists Rodin knew including Ravel, Debussy, Honegger, and Hahn. Join us to explore the intersection of creators and their muses.
Recorded May 13, 2021
Baker & Baker presents Composer George Fetner
Columbia’s own George Fetner premieres a new electroacoustic piece for chamber ensemble inspired by the exhibition The Imaginative Worlds of M.C. Escher. Drawing from the inherently musical elements in Escher's work like repetition and development, tension and release, and paradoxical storytelling, Fetner's new piece Three Worlds translates Escher's art into a live concert experience on Boyd Plaza. Joining Fetner are Jeff Vaughn on percussion and Moses Andrews on keyboard, synth, and organ.
Recorded January 22, 2021
Baker & Baker presents Duo Cortona
The CMA welcomes back Duo Cortona — mezzo-soprano Rachel Calloway and violinist Ari Streisfeld — for a very special virtual performance recorded in the CMA collection galleries. This concert, inspired by ancient Greek poet Sappho's texts and the female experience, features a world premiere of Asunder by USC’s very own John Fitz Rogers as well as works by Laura Schwendinger, Robert Morris, Hilda Paredes, Akshaya Avril Tucker, Carolina Heredia, and Annika Socolofsky. Join us for this exclusive performance as Duo Cortona immerse themselves into works of art in the CMA collection with the accompanying power of music.
Recorded January 10, 2021
Baker & Baker presents the Music of Reena Esmail
In celebration of the exhibition Visions from India on closing day, the SC Philharmonic and the CMA welcome Los Angeles-based, Indian American composer Reena Esmail for a virtual program. Esmail works between the worlds of Indian and Western classical music and brings communities together through the creation of equitable musical spaces. The program includes pieces for soloists as well as small ensembles. Esmail joins SC Philharmonic Music Director Morihiko Nakahara virtually to introduce and discuss each piece.
Recorded August 20, 2020
“Retrospective of Black Is Beautiful” by Izms of Art
Live from the exhibition galleries, Izms of Art brings you “Retrospective of Black Is Beautiful,” a concert celebrating the themes in Black Is Beautiful: The Photography of Kwame Brathwaite. Enjoy virtual musical performances from BORN, K.Ford, and THE Dubber, who will debut singles off his album Southern Cachet. Presented by the Baker & Baker Foundation.