Thomas Baker

Thomas Baker (c. 1820 – 1888) was an English composer, music arranger, conductor, violinist, and musical producer who was primarily active in New York City. He is best known for composing the music for The Black Crook; a work which is widely cited as the first precursor to the twentieth-century musical.

Life and career Thomas Baker was born in England in c. 1820. A child prodigy on the violin, he was educated at the Royal Academy of Music in London. His efforts were later criticized as betraying a lack of knowledge of black music, for having "turned the slave song into a parlor ballad in time".

He was credited with writing the music for the 1866 stage production The Black Crook, which premiered at Niblo's Garden in New York City, using a melodrama and a French ballet troupe whose venue burnt to the ground while they still rehearsed. The "result was an unprecedented triumph", and was one of the major events in the early history of the extravaganza. The production "is frequently cited as the first real precursor to the twentieth-century musical".

Baker also arranged musical productions of Cinderella and Aladdin. He wrote the music for a number of productions at the Olympic Theatre in New York. The last play for which he arranged and directed the music was titled Diplomacy and was produced on 1 April 1878.