George Baker, an award-winning American organist, will perform at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 27, in Wiedemann Recital Hall as part of the College of Fine Arts Rie Bloomfield Organ Series at Wichita State University.
Tickets are $10 with discounts available and through the WSU Fine Arts Box Office at (316) 978-3233 or online at www.wichita.edu/fineartsboxoffice.
A native of Dallas, a young George Baker won the American Guild of Organists National Competition in organ playing in 1970 and created a sensation in the organ world with his subsequent featured recital for that organization's national convention two years later.
He then went to Paris to study organ and improvisation as well as to record. He returned to America to teach organ, then entered medical school.
Almost four decades later he has come full circle, returning to music as a performer, improviser, composer and teacher.
Baker has trained with some of the finest organ teachers of the 20th century, including Marie-Claire Alain, Pierre Cochereau, Jean Langlais and André Marchal. During his time in France, he earned the Prix de Virtuosit with Mention Maximum from the Schola Cantorum, under Langlais.
In his early years as a musician, Baker won first prizes by unanimous jury decisions in several major organ competitions including the American Guild of Organists (Buffalo, 1970), the Grand Prix de Chartres (Chartres, France, 1974) and the International Improvisation Competition (Lyon, France, 1979). His recording credits include the complete organ works of J.S. Bach (1979) and Louis Vierne (1994 world premiere recording, a project he shared with Cochereau).
He has been awarded three French Grand Prix du Disque, two of which were for The Complete Organ Works of Darius Milhaud. In 1995, the eight-CD Vierne set won the coveted Grand Prix Special du Jury from the Nouvelle Academie du Disque Francais. In 2000, the same recording won a critic's choice award from American Record Guide.
Baker serves as associate university organist and visiting lecturer in acoustics (physics) at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.