Rick Baitz has composed many award-winning compositions for the concert stage, film, television and theater. Currently Director of "Composing for the Screen", a BMI-sponsored workshop for emerging professional film composers, Rick spent the 2007-2008 season careening between New York and Chicago, where he was Director of Composition Studies, and Lead Instructor of Film Composition, at Columbia College Chicago's Music Department. Recent credits include the PBS documentary "Body & Soul: Diana & Kathy", directed by Academy Award-nominated producer Alice Elliott; "The Vagina Monologues" and "Life Afterlife" (HBO); the Sundance Award-winning "The Education Of Shelby Knox"; National Geographic's award-winning Specials "The New Chimpanzees", "Heart of Africa" and "Looters"; and Atom Films' "Baby Steps", starring Kathy Bates. His concert works have been performed across the US, Europe and Latin America, with his Juilliard-commissioned quintet "River of January" winning the Delius Composition Contest and termed a "glowing jewel of a new score" by the NY Times. Recently, Baitz composed and produced "Sound Meditations for Healing", a CD released on The Relaxation Company label. Current projects include a string quartet for the renowned ensemble Ethel, an electro-acoustic piece for the Juilliard Electric Ensemble, as well as several film and theater projects. Baitz was raised in Los Angeles, Rio de Janeiro and Durban, South Africa; received his DMA in Composition from Columbia University, and also studied Composition at the Manhattan School of Music, Tanglewood, and the Earle Hagan/BMI Film Scoring Workshop. You can contact him at rick@rickbaitz.com.