Rick Baitz

Richard Keith Baitz is an American composer. 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. He has also served on the faculties of The Juilliard School, Vermont College of Fine Arts, and Columbia College Chicago, and is founding director of BMI’s "Composing for the Screen" workshop in New York City.

Early life and education

Born in Los Angeles, Baitz spent his childhood in California, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Durban, South Africa. 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.

Baitz eventually transferred to Manhattan School of Music, receiving a Bachelors and Masters of Music, studying composition with Elias Tanenbaum, Charles Wuorinen and Ursula Mamlock. As a Composition Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center in 1980, he studied with George Perle, and attended his first film scoring seminar, led by John Williams. He completed a Doctor of Musical Arts at Columbia University in 1991, studying with Mario Davidovsky and Jack Beeson. The same year, he also attended the BMI Film Scoring Workshop in Los Angeles, led by Earle Hagan.

Musical career

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.

In 1987, Baitz's composition Kaleidocycles, commissioned by iEAR Studios at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, was featured at the Tanglewood Contemporary Music Festival. 1988 marked the first of several theatrical collaborations with his brother, playwright Jon Robin Baitz, including incidental music to The Film Society at New York's Second Stage Theater, Three Hotels for PBS’ American Playhouse, andTen Unknowns at Boston's Huntington Theater.

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 Music Days, held in Mexico City.

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.

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. Hall of Mirrors, commissioned by The Juilliard School, integrates varied ancient and modern percussion instruments with electronic effects. Into Light, composed in 1984, features clarinet, viola and piano.

In 2016, Baitz scored the short film 24 Hours that Changed History, a permanent installation at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park, NY. This led to the composing of several scores for the grand opening of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in November 2017, integrating elements of Mississippi Delta blues, electronics and spirituals, with voice-overs by Oprah Winfrey.

Baitz's recent work includes the soundtrack to Rob Garver’s acclaimed 2018 feature documentary What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael.

As an educator

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. In 2008, he founded and continues to lead BMI's "Composing for the Screen" film scoring mentorship program, based in New York City.

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.

Baitz also serves on the faculty of The Juilliard School where he teaches composition and film scoring.

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.

Other honors include: Grammy Nomination as an arranger for Wondrous Love – Feel The Spirit (Resimiranda Records, 2000); the Grand Prize and Chamber Music Award, 1993 Delius Composition Contest (for River of January); multiple awards from Meet the Composer and the American Music Center; and fellowships to The MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, The Edward Albee Foundation, The Millay Colony, and The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.

In addition to his work in music, in his earlier life he worked as a deckhand on a dredger in Durban, 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.

Film and television scores

• The Goldfish (1978)
• Le Plan Americaine (Stephen Wasserstein, 1980)
• Double Dealing (Stephen Wasserstein, 1982)
• Three Hotels (Jon Robin Baitz, 1991)
• Still Life (Anne Debroah Levy, 1994)
• Polio Water (Caroline Kava, 1995)
• The New Chimpanzees (1995)(for National Geographic)
• Last Summer in the Hamptons (Henry Jaglom, 1995)
• Heart of Africa: Fire and Ice (1996)(for National Geographic)
• Heart of Africa: Jewel of the Rift (1996)(for National Geographic)
• Heart of Africa: Forest Primeval (1996)(for National Geographic)
• The Irreversible Year (Stephen Olivieri, 1996)
• The Substance of Fire (Dan Sullivan, 1996)(based on play by Jon Robin Baitz)
• Looters (1997)(for National Geographic)
• Number One (Caroline Kava, 1998)
• The Family Life of Animals: Adventures in Childrearing (1998)
• The Family Life of Animals: The Road to Independence (1998)
• The Lost American (Sherry Jones, 1998)(documentary feature for Frontline
• Fresco (1999)(documentary feature for PBS)
• The Geography of Nowhere (2000)
• Uncommon Grounds (2000)
• Baby Steps (Geoffrey Nauffts, 2000)
• Life Afterlife (Lisa Jackson, 2000)(documentary for HBO)
• King of the Jungle (2001)
• Live Free or Die (Rose Rosenblatt, 2001)
• Bringing Durban Home (2002)
• The Vagina Monologues (2002)
• Project ALS (2003)
• Guns & Mothers (Thom Powers, 2003) (documentary for PBS)
• A Family Undertaking (Beth Westrate, 2004)(documentary for PBS)
• Until the Violence Stops aka World VDay (Eve Ensler, 2004)
• Fitness Fighters (2005)
• The Education of Shelby Knox (2005)(documentary for PBS; winner of Sundance and South By Southwest film festivals)
• The Better and Better Series (2006)
• Amexicano (2007)
• Body & Soul: Diane & Kathy (2008)(documentary for PBS; short list for Academy Award nomination)
• Jesus, Maria (Caroline Kava, 2009)
• Power & Control: Domestic Violence in America (Peter Cohn, 2010)
• Who Cares About Kelsey? (Dan Habib, 2012)
• Restraint & Seclusion: Hear Our Stories (Dan Habib, 2013)
• Your Stroke Is My Stroke (2013)
• 24 Hours That Changes History (Monadnock Media, 2016)
• Why We March (Monadnock Media, 2017)
• Emmett Till (Monadnock Media, 2017)
• Freedom Summer (Monadnock Media, 2017)
• We Speak NYC: Crossing the Street (2018)
• What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael (Rob Garver, 2018)

Concert music

• African Dreams (1977)
• Triophany (1977)
• Silky (1978)
• Seven Haiku by Basho (1978)
• Music for Orchestra (1979)
• Septuor Cinematique (1980)
• Music for Horn and Orchestra (1980)
• Diapson (1983)
• Two Poems for Flute and Alto Flute Solo (1984)
• Into Light (1984)
• Shaking the Air (1985)
• Kaleidocycles (1985)
• Ojala (1987)
• The Riverfisher (1989)
• Three Murders (1991)
• River of January (1991)
• Dark Fire (1992)
• Who’ll Be A Witness (1999)
• Glory, Glory (2002)
• Chthonic Dances (2010, rev. 2016)
• Hall of Mirrors (2015)