JoAnn Baxter Wich

JoAnn Baxter Wich, 84, of New Haven, CT passed away peacefully in Waterford, CT on April 27, 2024.
Her life was a beautiful performance in three acts.
The first act began in Lexington, Kentucky on August 29th, 1939. Born to Alma Marie (Bruederle) and
Charles Edward Baxter, her musical talent emerged as the leading bassoonist in the Commonwealth,
which at a young age put her in the circles of university faculty, professional artists, and other All-State
musicians, including an even younger, hotshot trumpetist from Louisville, Billy Wich. The two came
together to form a bond that spanned Kentucky's great divide between The 'Ville and Bluegrass Country
and a marriage that even the bounds of death could not break. Their partnership carried them through the
University of Louisville, the Louisville Orchestra, West Point, and eventually to New Haven.
Her second act began at the Yale School of Music, where she earned the respect and admiration of
Robert Bloom, distinguished professor, renowned performer, and recording artist. While he masterfully
mentored her as a bassoonist, he was so moved by hearing her vocal performance of an aria from the
Messiah at the Easter service at St. Thomas's Church, he exclaimed to her, "Do you think that I would
be trying to pour my heart through a wooden pipe if I could sing like that? Take that pipe away from
your face and sing!" While continuing to develop as an instrumentalist, she appeared as the diva in that
year's opera production at Yale and as the soloist for the Yale School of Music orchestra's final concert,
and her final Master of Music recital at Yale was a full program of soprano arias and lieder by
Schumann, Wolf, Charles Ives (Hopkins class of 1894, Yale class of 1898), Verdi, and Puccini. After
graduating, her astoundingly rapid development provided the potential path to become a world class
spinto, but she and her Billy made a difficult, mutual decision about the life they wanted in their second
act together, passing up attractive dual offers in Europe (at the time the only pathway for American
opera singers) to settle in New Haven and build a family. While Bill formed the Eastern Brass Quintet
with JoAnn's brother, Charles Baxter, becoming pioneers under Columbia Management in the now
ubiquitous brass quintet phenomenon, JoAnn took her musical gifts, musical training, and deep
knowledge of many musical genres to chart her own musical life in the New Haven Symphony
Orchestra, Bridgeport Symphony, and as a teacher at the Beecher Road School in Woodbridge, all while
nurturing their two grateful sons and extended family.
Act three opened with her appointment as Director of Choral Activities at Hopkins School in New
Haven in 1984. Over the next 30 years, she built the Concert Choir into a signature program achieving
heights never before seen in the school's 350-plus-year history: concerts from local landmark venues all
the way to Carnegie Hall, biannual performances at Trinity Church on the Green, and multiple European
tours, where the Hopkins Concert Choir not only sang for the Pope, but also earned local celebrity status
in the small Bavarian village of Oberau, which delighted in anticipation of every visit. By knowing the
power of the kind of music that feeds our humanity, JoAnn gave generations of Hopkins students and
colleagues the gift of not just what to sing or how to sing, but a profound sense of why to sing. She
taught her choristers that the "beauty of the sound comes from the generosity of the heart," helping
students with a wide range of ability find their joie de vivre and find their "place" at Hopkins. Rather
than point out every weakness and condemn every shortcoming, she endeavored to build up her students
by always "trying to catch them doing something right." Each September, she would tell her young
charges: "There is something extra special that the school saw in each of you. It is my job to find out
what gifts you bring!" And she did exactly that until her retirement in 2014.
Throughout, she was the Queen of Superlatives: "the best salt," "the best meal," and yes, "the best
Bourbon." She gave a vast cross section of New Haveners a taste for the Mint Julep at her legendary
Kentucky Derby Day parties on Colony Road hosted with her dear friends Peaches and Bill Quinn. She
graced countless dining room tables on her constant travels across the country, from Kentucky, to Texas,
to Southern California, and back at home, always regaling friends and other guests with her vast
knowledge of music and food-she was a foodie before that was a thing. And at the end of her third act,
what did she receive in return that would satisfy someone who could have been an internationally
acclaimed singer of opera and took a different path? "They sing me to heaven," she said of her pupils, in
her uniquely Kentucky way-a way that we should all be so lucky to have been born into.
She was predeceased by the love of her life, Walter William (Bill) Wich, in 1997. She leaves behind a
joyful and thankful family: brother Charles Baxter (Kathy Morse), sister Pamela Walsh, sons Stefan
(Kristen Erricson) and Scott (Kristen Joel) Wich, and-the true pride of her final act-grandchildren
Charlie, Erric, and Violet Wich.
In lieu of flowers, gifts may be given to Hopkins School in memory of JoAnn Wich, and will be directed
to the multiple funds that are established in her honor. A private family interment ceremony will take
place in the coming days, with a larger celebration of life being planned at Hopkins School this Summer.