Edward A. Baird

Edward Allen Baird (18 March 1933 – 2 August 2000) was an American bass, music educator, and choral conductor. He was the son of Edward A Baird and Mary S Baird (née Bradly). He studied at the University of Missouri–Kansas City where he graduated with B.A. in Music in 1955 and a M.A. in Music in 1954. and serving as the bass soloist in a performance of Franz Schubert's Mass No. 2. He also worked for recreation department of the Kansas City Welfare Department from 1954 to 1956 as the supervisor of music programming. He was notably the first vocalist to earn a doctorate from the UM's School of Music, Theatre, and Dance. That same year he placed third in the Great Lakes Region of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

Vocal music educator After completing his master's degree, Baird joined the faculty of Midland College (now Midland University) in Fremont, Nebraska where he was an assistant professor of voice from 1957 to 1959 and the chairman of the Department of Fine Arts in 1959–1960.

While pursuing his doctorate, he worked as a teaching fellow at the University of Michigan from 1960 to 1962. Other pupils include the soprano Frances Ginzer. He returned to Interlochen in 1962 as the bass soloist in Joseph Haydn's The Creation under conductor Margaret Hillis; a part he also performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in their 1962–1963 season.

Baird was a longtime performer with the Fort Worth Opera (FWO). He began performing with the FWO in 1963. Crespel in The Tales of Hoffmann (1964), Conte Carnero in The Gypsy Baron (1966), Lodovico in Otello (1966), Basilio in The Barber of Seville (1967), Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor (1967), Dottore Grenvil in La traviata (1968 and 1974), Bartolo in The Marriage of Figaro (1968), Geronte di Ravoir in Manon Lescaut (1968), Samuel in Un ballo in maschera (1969), the Sacristan in Tosca (1969), William Jennings Bryan in The Ballad of Baby Doe (1970), Colline in La bohème (1971), Talpa in Il tabarro (1974), Don Pedro in La Périchole (1976), Elder McLean in Susannah (1976), both Cesare Angelotti and the jailer in Tosca (1977), and the title role in The Mikado (1977). In November 1966 he performed the role of the King in Aida at the San Diego Opera with Lucine Amara in the title role. He also appeared as a guest artist with the Houston Grand Opera and the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis during his career. In 1971 he was bass soloist in George Frideric Handel's Messiah with the New Orleans Symphony. That same year he portrayed Jud Fry in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! at Casa Mañana, and appeared as a soloist with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (DSO) in Handel's Messiah under Anshel Brusilow. In previous seasons he had performed with the DSO as a soloist in Johann Sebastian Bach's Mass in B minor, Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, and Hector Berlioz's La damnation de Faust.

Personal life On June 29, 1952 Baird married Shirley Jean Vedder. They had one son, Keith Allen Baird.