There are two sides to the “first female to…”

On one hand, it reminds us of the equality the feminist movement spurred; on the other, it prompts the question: why did it take us so long?

This spring, Lisa Baker will be the first female to complete NIU’s music studies graduate program with a specialization in jazz guitar. Baker, an experienced performer and teacher from Nashville, joined the program after returning to NIU as a non-traditional student to complete her bachelors degree in psychology in 2007. She said that although her parents wouldn’t let her study music on a baccalaureate level, they were the ones to introduce her to her passion for jazz.

“My mom was a jazz pianist,” she said. “I played piano orchestras and sang in choirs, but when she brought home an acoustic guitar when I was a senior in high school, she just never got it back. I did the singer/songwriter thing until I was 38.”

Baker said that a male-dominated graduate jazz program isn’t exclusive to NIU; she has been struggling with the stereotype of a male guitar player since she began performing.

“A woman can get on stage and play a great solo, but then men will always walk up to them and say, ‘You know that you sing really well,'” she said. “You have to do a lot better than a normal guy would because you’re under a microscope. They don’t really believe you can do it.”

Baker accredits the lack of women in the program to the competitive aspect of graduate school.

“I think most women aren’t interested in that heavy competition,” Baker said. “We grow up thinking that our competition is going to alienate our sisters.”

In addition to teaching and performing, Baker is also a consultant and contributing author to associate professor Glenda Consenza’s upcoming music textbook Beat It! Teaching General Music K-8 Using Rock and Rap.

“I’m impressed with Lisa’s knowledge and her experience as both performer and pedagogue – she understands how to teach and is also a gifted performer,” Consenza said. “I feel extremely fortunate to have her contribution to this ground-breaking general music methods text.”

Although you can’t check out Baker’s music at a graduate recital (she opted a recording project instead), she hopes to release a record by the fall.

“I’m going to take a break from school and work for a while,” Baker said. “I’ve already been booking my summer with gigs and I’ll be looking for a college teaching position, and I’m in the process of making a record right now.”