Baker Artist Portfolios

Diana Wharton Sennaar is the award-winning composer and conceptualist of the 2023 Rubys Artist Grant Recipient CARRY ON! A New Theatrical Musical Experience. The book writer for CARRY ON! is NYU alum writer Mai Sennaar whose debut novel They Dream in Gold (2024) was called “Extraordinary” by the New York Times. Ms. Wharton Sennaar is the composer for the Broadway hit: “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf” among other theatrical works. Her work as a composer has garnered her such prestigious awards as the Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), Maryland State Arts Council, Meet the Composer Grant and New Music America. Her work has been glowingly reviewed by the New York Times, Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, Downbeat Magazine and Essence Magazine. Abbey Lincoln called her the heir to Nina Simone. A founding member of the internationally renowned vocal ensemble, Sweet Honey in the Rock, her songs have opened for Bill Withers, Jon Lucien and other luminaries. She is a graduate of Howard University. She is the Co-Founder and Program Director of Piano for Youth123, a Maryland-based, music education program that cultivates the power of piano instruction to catalyze youth leadership. The organization reaches hundreds of students annually through its public programs and performances, summer camp and year-round lessons and has recently been the recipient of the BGE Energizing Small Business grant.