A soprano in our midst
Andrea Baker to perform groundbreaking musical piece celebrating female identity at the festival
Andrea Baker is an American born mezzo soprano but is Scottish by choice. Her career has taken her to San Francisco, Germany and most recently Australia with her then partner now husband who is originally from Inverness.
She has been singing since a small child, first taught by her mum and then by her church minister who was a trained tenor.
She said: "The joke in my family is that I ‘came out' singing. I come from a musical family, and have always wanted to be a singer. I started singing recitals as a young kid and singing classical music. And back in the day, in the 70s, when I was growing up, schools still had orchestras and we performed operas and musical theatre. Since my first opera in high school, I have been singing continually, and made my debut in San Francisco."
Scotland has always featured prominently in her career as she got her first professional job as an opera singer at San Francisco Opera under chorus master Ian Robertson who is also from Edinburgh.
A professional singer since 1994, she has now decided that she will tackle something quite challenging for the Edinburgh International Festival 2021 - and again it has Scottish connections.
Commissioned by American opera singer Jessye Norman, and financed by New Yorker Henry Kravis, woman:life:song is a collaboration by five eminent women. The music was written by Scottish composer, Judith Weir, and the poetry is by Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison and Clarissa Pinkola Estés. The poets composed new poems based on the stages of a woman's life from the perspective of a woman through childhood, love, puberty, loss, and maturity. Weir set the texts to music and Norman performed it at The Proms in 2000. Little performed or recorded, it is a complex piece. Baker admits that she idolised Maya Angelou who, like her, started in Porgy and Bess.
Andrea said: "It feels like a piece to me that needs to be sung. It needs to be...these words, these feelings, this story needs to come out. And although it comes from a particularly African American perspective, this woman could be any woman. And it goes through youth, it goes through sorrow, the joy of first love, loss, and it brings you out the other end, looking forward to a new adventure. After Covid, there are many adventures in front of me that I never expected to happen, and this is one of them."
Baker will perform with her "old college buddy" William Eddins, and also the Chineke! Orchestra. She said: "The orchestra is Britain and Europe's only black and minority ethnic orchestra. They're an extraordinary band, and I'm honoured to be standing on the stage with the black team performing classical music at the International Festival in my home city."
There are many adventures in front of me that I never expected to happen, and this is one of them