Music Staff
Director of Music, Dr. Bryan Baker
Send Bryan an email
Phone: (510) 525-0302, ext. 309.
Read Music Matters, Bryan’s occasional column
Dr. Bryan Baker is an active Bay Area conductor, pianist and voice teacher. He has directed Luminescence, the UUCB adult choir, and coordinated the strong music program at the church since 2003. During this time, he has led many fundraising activities, including reinstating a Sing-Along Messiah, and organized numerous joint events with other congregations. Bryan is also Artistic Director and Conductor of Masterworks Chorale, Assistant Conductor of the San Francisco Choral Society, and directs the chamber choir Serenade. Having earned his doctoral degrees in music, Dr. Baker also serves on the faculty of the College of San Mateo. He formerly taught at San Francisco State University, Foothill College, Truman University in Missouri, and Arizona State University. He maintains a busy private studio, and his students have won competitions and appeared in concerts and opera productions in the Bay Area and across the country.
As a pianist, Bryan has performed across the United States and in Europe. Locally he has performed in Davies Symphony Hall, Herbst Theater, at the Stern Grove Festival, and on the Old First Concert Series. During recent seasons, he performed with the Kensington Symphony Orchestra, the California Chamber Symphony, the New Millennium Strings, and the San Francisco Concerto Orchestra in concertos by Mozart, Beethoven, Saint-Saëns, and Shostakovich.
Dr. Baker has won prizes in numerous competitions, including first place in the Klatzkin Contemporary Keyboard Competition and the Bay Area Keyboard Arts Competition, Living Composers category. He received a grant for performances of chamber music and has performed a wide range of unusual works for small ensembles.
Bryan finds great joy in the theater. He has directed and acted in several music and drama productions at UUCB.
Principal Organist, Katya Kolesnikova
Katya was born in Russia, where she began her musical studies at the age of seven. She decided to make music her profession, eventually graduating from musical School, College and Conservatory in Russia, earning advanced degrees in piano, chamber music, organ and musical science. She was then awarded a scholarship to the Ecumenical Institute of Church Music at Hochschule der Künste in Berlin, Germany, where she received yet another degree in organ performance and started working as a church organist. Returning to Russia, she married Alex, a physician, with whom she eventually moved to the U.S.
They came to America first living in Chicago, where Katya worked as a church organist, piano and organ teacher and performer. She continues doing so, now residing in the San Francisco Bay Area. She plays primarily for the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley in Sunday services and at special concerts such as the Messiah Sing Along held in late December.
