James DeCamp Photography
New Albany High School senior Ava Baker was leaving the theater after a long day of competitions in Texas when she was stopped by a little girl named Lila and her mother. The two praised her performance, and Lila’s mother told Baker how much she inspired Lila. This brief interaction reminded Baker of why she is in musical theater.
“Just seeing myself in her eyes… seeing that and being able to be that… role model was just indescribable,” Baker says.
From singing with family to winning local and national awards, Baker has grown as a performer over the years and is looking forward to where it may take her next.
Following the music
Ava Baker
Baker is not new to performing. Having grown up with her mom always singing, Baker found herself wanting to sing as well.
She started musical theater in sixth grade, and after her first role in Schoolhouse Rock Live! Jr., she fell in love and found herself signing up for professional voice lessons and looking forward to the next show announcement.
Ava Baker
“I knew at that point my heart was so into musical theater that I just couldn’t pass that up,” Baker says.
Outside of her involvement with her schools’ productions over the years, Baker also worked on her skills by attending The Songbook Academy for summer programming and working with the Short North Stage as a performance intern since her freshman year.
Under the mentorship of Dionysia Williams Velazco, award-winning director and choreographer at the Short North Stage, Baker says Williams Velazco leads the interns with passion and wisdom, constantly giving feedback and praise to help her and others in the program grow.
Ava Baker
Star-studded spotlight
After years of working on her craft, Baker has seen all that hard work recognized through awards and acknowledgements she has received in the past two years.
In 2025, Baker was named the Most Promising Sophomore by the Schmidt Vocal Competition and a National Finalist in the National Association of Teachers of Singing’s National Student Audition. Most recently, she was awarded an honorable mention in the 2026 New Albany Symphony Orchestra Student Concerto Competition. Among these awards, her first remains close to her heart – when she won the CAPA Marquee Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2025 for her portrayal of Mama Martin in Chicago.
The performance was special to Baker for multiple reasons, including giving her the chance to perform a solo on the Ohio Theatre stage, which Baker had seen performances on since she was little.
“Being able to look back on that opportunity to perform on that stage that little me wanted to be on was so special,” she says.
The show goes on
As she begins another season with the team at Short North Stage this fall, Baker is excited to take on the role as president of the leadership board, where she will help incoming interns find their footing.
Looking to her future after high school, Baker is taking time away from competing to focus on college audition tapes so she can continue to pursue her passions.
“I don’t have a dream school because going to school for theater and making that my life is the dream. That is my happy place,” Baker says.
Although she has a few ideas of what she wants to do in school, such as pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts in musical theater and a bachelor’s in speech pathology in order to study the voice, Baker isn’t worried about the path ahead as long as it leads to the stage.
“I have one plan, this is my plan, and I’m gonna find a way to make it happen,” she says.
Angelina Godfrey is an editorial assistant at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
