Born: Ju­ly 10, 1811, Wen­ham, Mass­a­chu­setts.

As a young man, Bak­er moved to Sa­lem, Mass­a­chu­setts, and in 1831 be­gan teach­ing mu­sic. In 1833, he tra­veled through­out Amer­i­ca with a con­cert com­pa­ny. Af­ter­ward, he stu­died with John Pad­don in Bos­ton, where, in 1839, he be­came mu­sic­al di­rect­or of a church run by a Dr. Chan­ning. In 1841, he be­gan hold­ing what were termed “mu­sic­al con­ven­tions,” and soon af­ter he was ap­point­ed vice-pre­si­dent of the Han­del and Haydn So­ci­e­ty of Bos­ton, hold­ing the post six years. From 1842 to 1848, he was su­per­in­tend­ent of mu­sic­al in­struct­ion in the Bos­ton gram­mar schools. He sub­se­quent­ly be­came ed­it­or of the Bos­ton Mu­sic­al Jour­nal, and helped found the Bos­ton Mu­sic School in 1857.

Sources

Music

1. Wallace