Jenny Oaks Baker & Family Four Release New Christmas Album

Plenty of parents work and juggle their schedules with the schedules of their busy children. But few are world-class musicians who perform with those children on stage, record albums and act as manager and director of the whole venture.

Jenny Oaks Baker and Family Four just released a new Christmas album titled “Joy to the World.” It’s available on your favorite music streaming app, at jennyoaksbaker.com or at Deseret Book stores. It features some traditional Christmas songs but with the flourish of Baker’s longtime collaborator Kurt Bestor. You’ll hear a Celtic version of “Joy to the World,” an old English song called “Lo How a Rose E’er Blooming” and her personal favorite “Do You Hear What I Hear” which has a Hebraic sound.

“They’re just beautiful, beautiful arrangements, and they just kind of speak of Christ and family and joy and peace and I’m really thrilled with it,” Baker said.

This is the second family album and they decided to release it just as Laura, the eldest Baker child, was leaving on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That decision came earlier in the year and was a little unexpected for the family.

“We were kind of surprised because that had never been in her plan, but she had some experiences that helped her to feel like that was right and she prayed about it and she decided to go,” Baker said.

Laura, who plays the violin and drums, was called to serve in the Lisbon Portugal Mission but for now is serving in Seattle, Washington. The other Baker children are Hannah, who plays piano and is a senior in high school, Sarah, a sophomore in high school who plays the cello, and Matthew, an 8^th grader who plays the guitar.

Even as Laura left on her mission in November, Baker is preparing for her other children to leave the nest. Hannah has applied to 13 music schools across the U.S. and even three schools in the U.K. Baker expects Hannah to end up at a school in the Eastern U.S. as she did. Baker earned her bachelor’s degree in violin performance from The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and her Master of Music Degree from The Juilliard School in New York.

Baker has plenty of experience performing solo. She was a first violinist for the National Symphony Orchestra before she resigned to focus on her family in 2007. Since then, she’s been creating albums, guest soloing for other orchestras and growing her brand as America’s Violinist. She’s sold about 1 million CDs with Shadow Mountain, according to her biography on her website, and has performed around the world.

With all that experience, she decided to start performing with her four children. But, she says, it wasn’t her idea.

“I never planned a family band, I never planned that, the Lord planned it. It’s the most beautiful thing of my life and I’m so grateful to the Lord,” she said.

In November, the family was able to perform on stage in front of an audience again. The first time since COVID-19 hit. They performed at the Tuacahn Center for the Arts in Southern Utah.

“To be able to perform in such a beautiful place that testifies of God’s creations and be able to perform with my family with other people of faith, it was really spectacular and it was really emotional – actually the whole concert was really emotional for me,” she said.

Baker and her husband, whom she says helps tremendously with their performances, drove the family down to the concert. They arrange all their concerts and travel. Baker has no publicist or “people” and even had to hire a violinist and two drummers to take Laura’s place in the performance.

Baker says performing with her children is both rewarding and frustrating at times. Because she’s already on stage she can’t make sure the four kids have the right costumes, their music, equipment, or even their instruments. She says they’ve forgotten all of those items in the past. For a fireside in England, one daughter ended up borrowing a missionary’s dress.

“We’re a regular family, we just end up on stage at the end of it,” Baker said.

The performances will continue as her children grow up and move on. She said she’ll hire other musicians, like she did in November, and will fly her children to larger concerts to perform together. She says she doesn’t want to hold them back from their own pursuits and realizes life has different chapters.

“We’ll just take one step at a time like we’ve done,” she said. “I know the Lord has another plan. I don’t know what it is, but I’ll just let us keep working hard and following the Spirit and trying to build the kingdom and the Lord has us build the kingdom in different ways throughout our life.”