Ann Meier Baker

Ann Meier Baker was appointed the director of music & opera at the National Endowment for the Arts in January 2015. She oversees the NEA’s grantmaking in music and opera and manages the NEA Jazz Masters Fellowships. Previously, Baker served as president and CEO of Chorus America, where she led the national membership association of more than 2,000 professional, volunteer, symphonic, and children/youth choruses. She was founding director of the National School Boards Association Foundation, an incubator for new ideas about the challenges facing urban school board leaders and other issues in public education. Baker also worked for the League of American Orchestras, the National Association for Music Education, and began her career as a professional singer with the United States Air Force Singing Sergeants. The author of several books on music organization governance, she has garnered several awards, including Chorus America’s induction into the Classical Music Hall of Fame in 2011.