Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra mourns double bassist and music animateur

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The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO) has announced the death of its former double bassist and community musician, Andy Baker.

Baker joined the Bournemouth Sinfonietta in 1978 as co-principal double bass. Prior to this, Baker performed in a wide range of music genres, including as a bass player in London pub bands in the 1970s, ahead of his studies at the Royal Academy of Music.

He played with the London Festival Ballet Orchestra and was a member of the BBC’s Northern Ireland Orchestra (now Ulster Orchestra), in which he played both double bass and electric bass in the orchestra’s recording sessions. He collaborated with artists including Marianne Faithfull, Gloria Hunniford, Jimmy Webb and Westlife, as well as jazz greats John Surman and Abdullah Ibrahim.

Baker was described as a ‘pioneering’ community musician, which stemmed from his passion as a music workshop leader. The Bournemouth Orchestras’ Education Department was established in the late 1980s, whereupon Baker dedicated six weeks of each year to concentrate on outreach work.

Baker stepped down from his playing role at the Sinfonietta in 1997 to become the company’s full time music animateur. In 1998, he was nominated for a Royal Philharmonic Prize for his work with inmates at Portland’s Verne Prison.

His work as a music educator involved engagement in mainstream education as well as with children with additional needs. He developed a programme of work for children of all ages on the autism spectrum, and also formed an orchestra for people living with dementia. Baker also coached and led workshops for the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.

In 2005, he was appointed community musician, the position he kept until his retirement. In an interview with Dorset Life in 2015, Baker said:

’I love this job because one day I’m playing in one of the world’s finest orchestras, the next I’m working in a recording session, then I’m with a bunch of three-year-old pre-schoolers, followed by a session at Alderney Hospital or with primary pupils at Heathlands School in West Howe. Then I could be playing country and western. The breadth of music I get to play is astonishing and that’s something I am incredibly joyous about.’

BSO members paid tribute to their former colleague. Andrew Burn, the orchestra’s former head of projects, said: ’Andy was one of a handful of cutting-edge player pioneers, who, in the final two decades of the last century, established the role of music animateurs/community musicians as integral and vital components of UK symphony orchestras.

’Blessed with innate musicianship, communication skills par excellence, and a warm-hearted personality, he inspired those with whom he worked across the whole of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s huge patch of engagement in the south west of England.’

BSO second violin, Vicky Berry, said: ’I count myself unbelievably lucky to have been able to work so closely with [Baker] for almost 20 years as part of BSO Resonate Strings and other projects. 

’From our residencies in Cornwall, Devon and Dorset to some fantastic trips to France, Andy always made everything he did look effortless, but there was so much thought and attention to detail put into the work he did – all with the biggest heart and superb sense of humour.’