Katherine Ramos Baker, Professor, Department of Music, CSU Northridge, joined the full-time faculty in Fall 2001. She received her Doctor of Education in Music Education degree from the University of Illinois and the Master of Music in Choral Conducting degree from CSU Fullerton. She also holds a Life Teaching Credential in Music from the State of California.
Dr. Baker has an array of professional experience teaching in higher education, high school, and middle school. Prior to coming to CSU Northridge, she was Director of Choral Activities at Lewis-Clark State College in Idaho, where she was received the “Excellence in Teaching” award for the School of Arts and Sciences, 1996. Her choirs have performed internationally in the Benedictinus 2000 Festival in Rome and the Innsbruck International Choral Festival in Austria. Most recently, her CSU Northridge Women’s Chorale performed at Shanghai Normal University and the Shanghai Arts Cultural Center in China, June 2007. She is sits on the boards of CSUN’s China Institute and its International Education Committee, working groups dealing with educational international issues and agreements among various institutions of higher education.
While at CSU Northridge, her work has continued in conducting, music education and music technology, and assessment. The CSU Northridge’s Women's Chorale, under her direction, premiered works by California composers at CMEA conference, performed Holst's The Planets with the San Fernando Valley Symphony, recorded music by colleague Elizabeth Sellers for the documentary film by Karen Kearns, That All May Be One, on the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in St. Louis, Missouri, and has been invited to perform in Europe and Asia. Dr. Baker also has served as an adjudicator/clinician and as an honor choir conductor for state and regional ACDA, MENC, and SCVA festivals, as well as “Music in the Parks” festivals and “Festivals at Sea.”
Her work in technology includes participation in federal and state technology programs, web-enhanced and distance learning courses, presentations at two national MENC conventions, and the publication of interactive multimedia software for Bach's Magnificat, Vivaldi's Gloria, and Mozart’s Requiem by Educational Courseware Systems
Her experience in assessment in music includes: presentations for AssessNet consortium in Nashville, for CMEA, IUPUI, and ISME; an article published by the Idaho State Music Educators (Spring 2004) and reprinted in the CMEA Journal (Spring 2005); and serving as a Field Reviewer of the Draft Standards for Programs in Music for the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, January. Her latest presentations in assessment include “Collaborative Assessment: Leading Faculty into and through Program Assessment” at the October 2005 Assessment Institute at IUPUI, Indianapolis, and “Creating a Culture of Assessment in Higher Education” at the 27th International Society for Music Education World Conference, in July 2006, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.