The Music Industry Summit is excited to welcome Julien Baker who will join us on Thursday, March 27, 2025, for our closing artist keynote session. Julien Baker is best known for her breakout solo career and her role in the three-time Grammy award winning trio, boygenius.
A native of Memphis who began playing music in church as a child, Julien Baker shot to worldwide attention in 2015 with her show-stopping debut, Sprained Ankle. Recorded in only a few days, it was a bleak yet
hopeful meditation on identity, addiction, faith, resilience and redemption. An intense and immersive performer, her live shows were described by The New Yorker as “…. hushed, reverential. The only sounds you hear between songs are her fingers as she tweaks the tuning on her electric guitar, scattered whispers between friends, and the rustling as the crowd waits patiently for Baker to start strumming again."
Baker's acclaim grew with 2017's Matador debut Turn Out the Lights and the following year's self-titled debut EP with boygenius, the trio she formed with fellow era-defining artists Phoebe Bridgers (Summit alumnus) and Lucy Dacus. With the release of her 2021 solo album Little Oblivions, Baker cemented herself as "one of the leading female singer/songwriters of her generation, both for her music’s muted grandeur and lyrics that seem to dive headlong into emotional chaos" (Rolling Stone). The album was met with worldwide critical acclaim and supported with performances on Late Night with Seth Meyers, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Late Late Show with James Corden and CBS This Morning.
Baker reunited with boygenius in 2023 for their first full-length, the record, which won three Grammy Awards and was supported by the biggest tour of the musicians' collective careers -- including sold out shows at New York's Madison Square Garden and Los Angeles' Hollywood Bowl.
She recently composed the theme song for Orphan Black: Echoes which premiered on June 23 on AMC, AMC+ and BBC America. She has also collaborated on studio recordings with Frightened Rabbit, The National's Matt Berninger, Paramore, Thomas Powers of The Naked and Famous, Becca Mancari, Mary Lambert, and on stage with Justin Vernon, The National, Sharon Van Etten and Death Cab For Cutie/The Postal Service's Ben Gibbard.
Haven't yet registered for the Summit? Registration is open now! Students, faculty/staff at educational institutions, and Ohio University alumni can register for free for the in-person event. All other in-person attendees must pay a nominal $50 registration fee (which will increase to $75 closer to the event). Virtual registration is free and open to anyone.
Take a look at the schedule to begin planning your Summit experience! Programming will continue to be added in as it is confirmed and announced.