Biography

BLURB
(114 words)
The Honourable Elizabeth A. Baker is a new renaissance artist whose work is best expressed as a constantly evolving practice that doesn’t fit neatly into definition or expectation boxes. It is an artistic body of work vast in scope and scale outside of the confines of a simple elevator pitch, unrestrained and unencapsulated. Elizabeth has received international recognition from press, scholars, and the public for her conceptual compositions and commitment to inclusive programming. Fanfare Magazine proclaimed in Fall 2019 “Perhaps Baker will be the Pauline Oliveros of her generation, and perhaps she will be more than that.” Elizabeth is the 2021-2022 Rieman and Baketel Fellow for Music at Harvard Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

SHORT FORM
(257 words)
The Honourable Elizabeth A. Baker is a new renaissance artist whose work is best expressed as a constantly evolving practice that doesn’t fit neatly into definition or expectation boxes. It is an artistic body of work vast in scope and scale outside of the confines of a simple elevator pitch, unrestrained and unencapsulated.Elizabeth has received recognition from press as well as scholars, for her conceptual compositions and commitment to inclusive programming. In addition to studies of her work, Elizabeth has been awarded several fellowships, grants, and residencies, in addition to sponsorships from Schoenhut Piano Company and Source Audio LLC. As an experimental filmmaker, her work has been shown at festivals including Women of the Lens (United Kingdom), and the African Smartphone International Film Festival (Nigeria). As a solo recording artist, Elizabeth is represented by Aerocade Music, her first solo album on the California-based label Quadrivium released worldwide in May 2018 to rave reviews. She is the founder and former executive director of the Florida International Toy Piano Festival, The New Music Conflagration, Inc., author of three books, and the subject of a number of scholarly articles, thesis papers, and other academic research. Elizabeth is a recipient of a 2019-2020 Individual Artist Grant from the State of Florida as well as a commission for The Great Black Music Ensemble through the American Composers Forum (ACF) Connect programme in partnership with The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM Chicago). Elizabeth is the 2021-2022 Rieman and Baketel Fellow for Music at Harvard Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

MEDIUM FORM
(490 words)
The Honourable Elizabeth A. Baker is a new renaissance artist whose work is best expressed as a constantly evolving practice that doesn’t fit neatly into definition or expectation boxes. It is an artistic body of work vast in scope and scale outside of the confines of a simple elevator pitch, unrestrained and unencapsulated.

In recent years Elizabeth’s commitment to pushing herself and the scope of her work has manifested as a deeply in-depth and time intensive process of creating pieces that involve new systems of notation from time-cones to video scores as well as creating new virtual instruments based on original samples from archives and field recordings collected by Elizabeth both nationally and internationally. Building the virtual instruments and backend of these notation systems to create new works for herself and others can take upwards of 30 to 100 hours.

Within her role as sonic practice artist, Elizabeth performs on a system instrument an extensive and evolving setup, lovingly referred to as “The Spaceship” includes a variety of semi-modular analogue synthesisers, interactive MIDI controllers driven by movement and sound, theremins, multiple computers and mobile devices, found objects, toy piano, harmonium, handmade hydrophones, as well as a 6’ 2” custom double-sided non-resonant amplified zither designed and built by John C. L. Jansen, named “Black Moon Lilith.”

Elizabeth’s practice also extends into the visual aspects both still and moving her works on canvas have been displayed in galleries as well as being enjoyed by collectors across the United States, while her film works have been featured in international festivals such as Women of the Lens (UK) and African Smartphone International Film Festival (Nigeria). Her video series FIELD STUDIES and AGGRESSIVE PILLOW TALK, which explores the nature of humans and their structures as an equal part of the cosmic ecosystem have been awarded grants from the State of Florida and was the subject of her research as a 2021-2022 Harvard Radcliffe Institute Fellow.

Innovation and expression of ideas that cause people to think and listen deeply has placed Elizabeth at the forefront of discussion about humanity, the impact of art, mental health in the artistic community, as well as dismantling hierarchy in artistic presentation and society as a whole unit. Elizabeth’s work has been studied by scholars across the globe, recognised by press, highly sought after by performers, and been a life-changing experience for collectives of people from a wide range of backgrounds.

Whilst Elizabeth assigns no specific human narrative to the majority of her work and notably mentions that all beings experience her work through the lens of their own backgrounds and physiological capacity, she challenges the receiver of her work to consider… “that all things exist and have their own essence outside of human definition… what does our interaction with the world around us look like if we remove ourselves from the narrative center?”

Fanfare Magazine and I Care If You Listen (.com) have both proclaimed The Honourable Elizabeth A. Baker as “the Pauline Oliveros of her generation.”

LONG FORM BIOGRAPHY OR CV ARE AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST

STYLE NOTES

When referring to Elizabeth in print her honorific title and full name including the middle initial is always to be used —
The Honourable Elizabeth A. Baker.

In print and speech, the shortened version of The Honourable Elizabeth A. Baker is just Elizabeth.

Elizabeth’s pronouns are she/her.

Elizabeth’s honorific title is The Honourable Elizabeth A. Baker, which should be used in lieu of “Ms. Baker.” The entire title is used every time like “A Tribe Called Quest” you say “The Honourable Elizabeth A. Baker” as a whole.

In lieu of another title or label such as composer, performer, author, etc., Elizabeth is always referred to as a “new renaissance artist.”