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Julius Baker




"Baker was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and at age nine started flute lessons with his Russian immigrant father. Later he studied with August Caputo and Robert Morris. At the Curtis Institute, he studied with William Kincaid and had classes with Marcel Tabuteau. Upon graduation in 1937, Baker returned to Cleveland to play second flute in the Cleveland Orchestra, conducted by Arthur Rodzinski, and in the section led by Maurice Sharp." ''Flute Talk,'' October 2003

As a teacher, Baker's influence spread far beyond his students at Juilliard and Curtis through his Master classes as well as his recordings of standard repertoire and those he made with the New York Philharmonic. Among his most famous pupils are Paula Robison , a well-known soloist and chamber musician who is now on the faculty of the New England Conservatory ; Jeffrey Khaner , currently principal flute of the Philadelphia Orchestra , also for a period principal flute of the Cleveland Orchestra , on the faculty of the Curtis Institute Of Music ; Gary Schocker , a flute soloist and composer; Jeanne Baxtresser , who succeeded him as principal flutist of the New York Philharmonic and recently retired to devote herself to teaching; Anne Diener Zentner (formerly Giles) , principal flute of the Los Angeles Philharmonic ; Anne Briggs , a noted baroque flutist and busy free-lance musician in New York. Other notables include David Shostac, Elizabeth Mann, Eugenia Zukerman, Joshua Smith, Hubert Laws, Jeffrey Khaner, and Laurel Ann Maurer.

Julius Baker was also an electronics buff and amateur ham-radio operator. He built audio equipment upon which he taped his early solo recordings. "His interest in electronics developed into The Oxford Recording Company, a mail-order business he ran out of his home and which produced five of his flute recordings between 1946 and 1951. Baker gave the first American performance with orchestra of the Ibert Flute Concerto in 1948 with the CBS Symphony, and that concert was later issued on Oxford Records."

Baker was also a gentleman farmer, owned a prized old red tractor, and kept bees, goats, geese, and various other pets.

Baker died in 2003 after a long and distinguished career as an orchestral flutist.


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