Passages.(Joanne Johnson Baker; Dianne Brimmer)(Obituary)

Joanne Johnson Baker, a long-time faculty member at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC), died December 27, 2004, at age 81. Baker's contributions to MTNA were extensive and far-reaching, as she served as national coordinator for the MTNA High School Piano Performance Competitions and Repertoire Committee, and was a frequent competitions adjudicator and clinician at many state and national MTNA conferences. Baker was named an MTNA FOUNDATION Fellow in 2003.

Baker held both B.A. and M.M. degrees in piano performance from the University of Michigan.

In 1986, Baker was the first recipient of the UMKC Conservatory of Music Excellence in Teaching award. She became UMKC's longest-serving faculty member, teaching at the school for forty-nine years and chairing the Keyboard Division for the last twenty-five of those years. She was designated a Curators' Professor, the university's highest honor. Baker chaired the prestigious Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition for two decades and was the first American artist invited to teach in China after the Cultural Revolution.

Baker's many other awards include the Burlington-Northern Faculty Award for Outstanding Teaching, the Conservatory Trustees' Award for Excellence in Teaching, the ...