Rick Baitz

Richard Keith Baitz is an American composer, born in 1954. His work incorporates elements of classical, jazz, electronic and world music, and has been extensively utilized for the concert stage, film, television, theatre, and dance. 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. Biography 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. 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. 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’ Am