Richard Keith Baitz is an American composer, born in 1954.[1] His work incorporates elements of classical, jazz, electronic and world music, and has been extensively utilized for film, television, theatre, dance and the concert stage.[2] He has also served on the faculties of The Juilliard School, Vermont College of Fine Arts, and Columbia College Chicago, and was founding director of BMI’s "Composing for the Screen" workshop in New York City.[3][4]
Born in Los Angeles, Baitz spent his childhood in California, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Durban, South Africa.[5] He graduated from Fairfax High School in Los Angeles, and briefly attended the University of Natal in Durban, later returning to the United States to study at Georgetown University.[6][4]
Baitz's early work as a composer focused on electro-acoustic pieces for varied instrumentations, including African Dreams (1977) for electronic tape, Triophany (1977) for alto saxophone, piano and double bass, and Seven Haiku by Basho (1978) for soprano and mixed ensemble.
Baitz's concert work in the 1980s and ‘90s included Into Light for clarinet, viola and piano; The Riverfisher for chamber orchestra, voices and electronics, with text by poet Tory Dent; and his Juilliard-commissioned electro-acoustic quintet River of January, which won first prize in the Delius Composition Contest. River of January was also selected by The International Society of Contemporary Music to represent the US in the 1993 World New Music Days, held in Mexico City.[5][10][11] In 2023, River of January was selected to return to the World New Music Days for its Centennial Festival, held in South Africa; in December, Rick played the piece in Cape Town (on keyboard) with an ensemble of stellar South African musicians. River of January was also recorded in New York in 2023, and is the title piece of Rick's new album, released in May 2024 on Neuma Records.
From 1992 through 1998, he shared a music production studio in midtown Manhattan with mentor and employer Buryl Red, where he scored multiple National Geographic documentaries, including The New Chimpanzees, Stolen Treasures, and the mini-series Heart of Africa. In 1998, he built his own studio, Rick Baitz Music, where he composed many soundtracks for PBS and HBO, including Life Afterlife, Body & Soul: Diana & Kathy, The Education of Shelby Knox, and The Vagina Monologues.[12]
In 2018, Baitz released an album of his concert music, Into Light, on Innova Recordings. The CD features three pieces for acoustic and electro-acoustic ensembles. Chthonic Dances, written for violinist Mary Rowell and her string quartet ETHEL, drew inspiration from Baitz's early experiences of the musical and dance cultures of Brazil and South Africa. The piece premiered at the Tribeca New Music Festival in May 2011.[13][4][14]Hall of Mirrors, commissioned by The Juilliard School, integrates varied ancient and modern percussion instruments with electronic effects.[15]Into Light, composed in 1984, features clarinet, viola and piano.[16] Rick's most recent album, River of January, released on Neuma Records in May 2024, features four pieces: the title composition, River of January, for flute, violin, cello, percussion and Yamaha DX7 Synthesizer; his 2021 electro-acoustic quintet Music For A Sacred Space, premiered at The Juilliard School in 2022, commissioned by violinist Cornelius Dufallo, accompanied by cello, multiple world percussion, piano and fixed media; Dark Fire, a 1992 duo for violin (Jennifer Choi) and cello (Yves Dhar); and Two Poems for Flute & Alto Flute Solo (1980, rev. 1984), played by Erin Lesser.
Baitz served as Director of Composition Studies at Columbia College Chicago for the 2007–08 academic year, doubling as lead composition instructor in their Master of Fine Arts (MFA) program in film scoring.[12] In 2008, he founded BMI's New York city-based film scoring mentorship program "Composing for the Screen", which he ran for 13 years.
He was Chair of the low-residency MFA in Composition program at Vermont College of Fine Arts from 2012 until 2016, and continues as a core faculty member. The program integrates contemporary concert music, film scoring, electronic music, songwriting and jazz.[2][5]
Baitz also serves on the faculty of The Juilliard School where he teaches film scoring[21] in the Composition Certificate program of the Extension Division.
Baitz was awarded one of BMI's highest honors, the Classic Contribution Award, at the 2018 BMI Film, TV & Visual Media awards in Los Angeles. The award honored and acknowledged his role as Founding Director of BMI's "Composing for the Screen" workshop.[3][7][22]
In addition to his work in music, in his earlier life he worked as a deckhand on a dredgerinDurban, South Africa and as a cab driver in New York City. More recently, he has served as an expert witness in legal cases involving music. He lives in New York City.[9][14]
