Richard Baker is a composer based in Ceredigion, Wales. His distinctive work is often concerned with the transcription and transformation of extra-musical material, and is characterised by a refined ear for harmony and instrumental colour, coupled with a bold and often surprising rhetoric.
In a career during which he also made his name as a sought-after conductor of contemporary music and opera, he has maintained a steady output of substantial, thought-provoking works. Milestones include: Learning to Fly (1999), the work that first brought his name to attention when it was presented by London Sinfonietta in their State of the Nation festival; The Tyranny of Fun (2013), a commission for Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (nominated for a Royal Philharmonic Society Chamber-Scale Composition Award); The Price of Curiosity (2019), a commission for the BBC Symphony Orchestra/Radio 3; and Motet II (2020), a commission for Ensemble Télémaque, Marseille. All of these works and others are available on a portrait CD from NMC Recordings.
Since 2004 he has taught composition at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.