By Susan Sachs Fleishman

Scott Patterson, the 2019 Baker Artist Award’s Mary Sawyers Imboden Prize winner, is an exceptionally gifted artist. His talents as a pianist, composer, lyricist and librettist are impressive; his music resonates; he tackles grand themes about space and time, gods and burning suns, and his outsized talents cross boundaries of performance, composition, jazz, opera, ballet, soul and rock.

Scott has had a major impact on Baltimore with Afro House, which he co-founded in 2011 with his wife, Alisha. It is a music-driven performance art house, committed to the development of a music culture that is disruptive, exuberant, innovative, emergent, and transformative!

His reach extends far beyond his adopted city of Baltimore. For example, Scott has toured with Camille A. Brown & Dancers since 2012. His compositions for two of their acclaimed works have been performed at venues such as Washington’s Kennedy Center, the Lincoln Center and The Joyce Theater in New York, White Bird in Portland, and across the pond at the Belfast Festival at Queen’s.

His ballet-operas and other compositions combine classic disciplines with futuristic performance art and sci-fi themes that are fables for today. “Scott is forging new territories for music in Baltimore, and it’s an honor for Baker to recognize and support his incredible work,” says Connie Imboden, President of the William G. Baker Jr. Memorial Fund.

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