Dr. Cortney Combs Baker has been teaching Suzuki violin and viola for over 25 years.  She began her string studies at the age of three at the University of Georgia Pre-College Suzuki program.  Dr. Baker received the Bachelor of Music Education degree from Furman University in 1995 and the Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the University of Texas at Austin in 1997 and 2002, respectively.  She was the winner of the University of Texas Concerto Competition in 1999.  Dr. Baker has performed with the Austin Symphony Orchestra, the Brevard Music Center Orchestra, The Corpus Christi Symphony, the Abilene Philharmonic and the Victoria Symphony, where she was principal second violinist for several seasons.  She presently performs with the NCOpera orchestra and the Orchestra Pro Cantores at Duke University.  From 1995-2002, she was Assistant Director of the University of Texas String Project, a teacher training program in Austin.  In this capacity, she taught applied violin and conducted the String Project’s orchestras.  As a guest clinician, she served on the faculty of Furman University Band and Orchestra Camp for 14 years and is currently on the faculty at the Greater Washington Suzuki Institute.  From 2002-2007, Dr. Baker was Co-Director of the Sunshine Suzuki Strings in Davie, Florida.  From 2009-2013 she served as Co-Director of the Suzuki Institute at Furman University.  Currently she is the Director of Pineland Suzuki Strings in Cary, NC.