Canadian American saxophonist Jan Berry Baker has performed as a concerto soloist, chamber, and orchestral musician on many of the world’s great stages.  Recent engagements have taken her across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan, France, Germany, Scotland, England, Switzerland, Austria, Ukraine and Czechia.

A passionate advocate of contemporary music, cross-disciplinary collaborations and community engagement, Jan is co-artistic director of chamber ensemble, Bent Frequency. As the BF Duo Project, she and Stuart Gerber have commissioned over 50 new works for saxophone and percussion and have given countless performances across the US, Canada, Mexico, and Europe including a Carnegie Hall debut in 2016. Their efforts to fund the creation, performance and recording of new music has been generously supported by Aaron Copland Fund, French American Cultural Exchange (FACE), Barlow Foundation, Fromm, Amphion Foundation, Ditson Foundation, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation (National Endowment for the Arts/Andrew Mellon Foundation), and Culture Ireland, to name a few.

Jan also moves fluently in the orchestral world. She regularly performs with the LA Phil and spent nearly two decades as the principal saxophonist with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Grant Park Festival Orchestra, Chicago Philharmonic, Atlanta Ballet, and Atlanta Opera.  She has also appeared with the LA Opera, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Joffrey Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, Chicago Chamber Players, and American Ballet Theater. Jan’s extensive discography includes chamber and orchestral releases on the Centaur, Neuma, New Focus, Platoon, and Albany labels.  She is the featured saxophonist on American Orchestral Works with the Grant Park Orchestra, Atlanta Opera’s world premiere recording of The Golden Ticket, and most recently the three-time GRAMMY winning Gabriela Ortiz: Revolución Diamantina with the LA Phil led by Gustavo Dudamel.

Jan has held residencies at the Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice -SICPP (Colorado), Nürnberg Tage Aktueller Musik (Germany), American Saxophone Academy, MATA Festival (Mexico), Cervantino New Music Festival (Mexico), Charlotte New Music Festival, New Music on the Point (Vermont), Dakota Chamber Music Festival, and at numerous educational institutions across the US. She is highly sought after as a guest artist and speaker, and has offered presentations on contemporary music, entrepreneurship, nonprofits and grant writing, community engagement, socially conscious programming, career development and mentoring.

Equally committed to education and mentorship, Dr. Baker is professor of saxophone and woodwind area head at The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music and currently serves as the vice chair of the Department of Music Performance, Education & Composition and special assistant to the dean for faculty mentoring.  Prior academic appointments include Georgia State University, Emory University, Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, Northwestern University and University of Alberta.  She studied with Frederick L. Hemke, William H. Street and Barbara Lorenz and earned a Doctor of Music degree in saxophone performance from Northwestern University. She is a founding member of the North American Saxophone Alliance’s Committee on Gender Equity and creator of its mentoring program. Jan Berry Baker is a Selmer Paris, Vandoren, and Key Leaves performing artist.