Rick Baker is the Conductor and Music Director of the Arlington Community Band. Prior to his appointment as its Conductor, he played first trumpet in the band for 28 years. He is finishing his thirty third year as a music educator. Rick retired in 2007 after twenty nine years of teaching Band in the Arlington I.S.D. He was most recently Director of Bands at James Bowie High School, where he also served as Head of the Fine Arts Department. Prior to his tenure at Bowie High School, Mr. Baker taught Junior High School in Arlington for nineteen years. He has also served as the President of Region 5 of the Texas Music Educators Association and as the Region 5 U.I.L. Orchestra Chairman. He is an active clinician and adjudicator in the area. He is a member of Texas Music Educators Association, Texas Bandmasters Association, Phi Beta Mu, Texas Music Adjudicators Association, Kappa Kappa Psi, and Phi Mu Alpha.

He is a graduate of the University of Texas at Arlington, and also holds a Masters in Music from East Texas State University. (Now known as Texas A&M University-Commerce)

Bands under his direction have won numerous First Divisions at U.I.L. competitions, as well as many well-known Festivals throughout the United States. He has had many award winning groups in several different areas, including Concert Band, Marching Band, and Jazz Band.

Mr. Baker is also very active as a professional trumpet player. He played Principal Trumpet with the Wichita Falls Symphony for five seasons and played in the Texas Wind Symphony for fifteen seasons. In addition he has spent twenty-eight years in the Arlington Community Band, and six years in the Collection Jazz Orchestra. He also plays in the Metro Praise Orchestra and The Joshua Experience, two area Christian Big Bands. He also free-lances in local churches and musical theater productions.

He is very active in his retirement, doing many band clinics, judging contests, and playing his trumpet. Mr. Baker has a trumpet studio of 22 trumpet students he teaches each week. Mr. Baker is also an adjunct professor of music at Dallas Baptist University where he teaches classes in Music Education as well as instrumental private lessons.