School of Music

Andrea Baker

Andrea Baker
Assistant Professor, Bassoon
Browne 202
Email: AC-Baker2@wiu.edu

Dr. Andrea C. Baker serves as Assistant Professor of Bassoon at Western Illinois University, where she maintains an active career as a performer and educator.

Joining the faculty in 2023, Dr. Baker performs with the WIU Camerata and Clow Quintets, contributing to the university’s rich tradition of faculty chamber music collaboration. She serves as Chamber Music Coordinator, Graduate Coordinator, and Applied Area Coordinator. Her teaching at WIU includes applied bassoon, bassoon literature and pedagogy, chamber music, and courses in the music history and humanities area. Her teaching emphasizes technical excellence, musicality, collaboration, and professional development, with a particular interest in creating meaningful opportunities for students to engage with contemporary music and chamber performance.

An avid chamber musician, Dr. Baker is a founding member of Cirrus Blue, a contemporary woodwind quintet dedicated to commissioning and performing new music. Through Cirrus Blue and its predecessor, Camerata Nova, she has helped commission and premiere more than ten works for flute, oboe, clarinet, saxophone, and bassoon, collaborating with composers including Katherine Pukinskis, Matt Mason, Hong-Da Chin, and Paul Berlinsky. This work has received support from the International Double Reed Society, the Western Illinois University Research Council, and the Western Illinois Performing Arts Society. Her chamber music work has taken her to festivals and conferences throughout the United States and internationally, including the International Double Reed Society Conference, the College Music Society National Conference, the Illinois Music Educators Conference, the North American Saxophone Alliance Biennial Conference, the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival in South Africa, and the Australasian Double Reed Society Conference in Melbourne, Australia. Her ensembles have also served as ensembles in residence at the 2025 Virginia Tech Woodwind Festival and the 2027 Women Composers Festival of Hartford. In 2026, Dr. Baker and her colleagues presented “Commissioning the Contemporary Woodwind Quintet” at the Chamber Music America National Conference. She also performs with Some Light Reeding, a clarinet and bassoon duo focused on accessibility and equity in woodwind education through workshops, masterclasses, and mentorship. Dr. Baker is co-founder of Forgottonia Chamber Music Festival, which creates opportunities for adult amateur musicians to participate in chamber music through coaching, collaboration, and performance.

As an orchestral musician, Dr. Baker serves as principal bassoonist with Opera in the Ozarks and second bassoonist with the Richmond Symphony in Indiana. Her orchestral engagements include performances with the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Asheville Symphony Orchestra, Alabama Symphony Orchestra, and Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra, among others. As a soloist, she won the 2021 University of Cincinnati Wind Concerto Competition and the 2017 Boston Woodwind Society Sherman Walt Merit Solo Competition.