Alicia Baker has been a passionate musician since she sang her first solo at age 3.  She began studying the piano at age 4, the accordion at age 6 and vocally at age 14.  Alicia recently graduated from Oregon State University, and now holds a bachelor of arts degree in Music Education, Piano Performance, and Vocal Performance.

Alicia has found her most tangible success with the accordion. She has won several International competitions, including the Happy Hans award at the Kimberley International Old-Time Accordion Championships and the Leavenworth Open.  Alicia also won 3rd place at the Coupe Mondiale accordion world championships in Victoria, BC in August 2013. In 2009, she won the privilege of representing the USA at the Roland International V-Accordion Competition in Rome. This turned out to be the beginning of her current relationship with Roland; one that continues to provide opportunities to share her love for the instrument. 

Aside from competitive events, Alicia has performed solo accordion concerts at many notable festivals. These include the American Accordion Association Convention, Cotati Accordion Festival, the Accordionists and Teachers Guild International Festival, KIOTAC, Leavenworth Old-Time Accordion Festival, the NAMM show. In 2011, she was privileged to join the Corvallis symphony as the soloist for Nikolai Chaikin’s Accordion “Concerto in B-flat Major”. 

Vocally, Alicia thrived as an opera student all throughout college, as she discovered a new passion.  Her college operatic performance experience included the role of “Queen of the Night” in OSU’s production of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” in April 2012, as well as multiple roles in various scenes throughout four terms of Opera Workshop at OSU.  Alicia performed two solo vocal recitals in fulfillment of her vocal performance degree.  In terms of awards, she was the vocal scholarship recipient of the Brookings Friends of Music Annual Scholarship Competition, in addition to winning the NATS competition for classical voice in her age division in 2012.  More recently, Alicia was selected as a finalist in Classical Singer’s National Vocal Competition.

On the piano, Alicia performed two solo piano recitals in fulfillment of her piano performance degree, and accompanied many musicians and singing groups to fund her college education.  She loves the art of collaborative piano, and will always enjoy working as an accompanist.

In addition to her three instruments, Alicia also discovered a passion for musical composition.  She’s composed many solo accordion pieces, a few piano solo pieces, and two works for choir. Alicia won the KRAFT composition competition held at OSU in 2011, and was honored to have her composition “The Unseen”, written for choir, cello, and piano, performed by the OSU Chamber Choir.  She plans to continue composing, and hopes to become a published composer someday.

As a recent college graduate, Alicia can now begin fulfilling her dreams, which include promoting and sharing her love of accordion to younger generations, as well as performing on all of her instruments.  She currently works for Roland Corporation, where she enjoys sharing her love and knowledge of music with others.

When I asked Alicia about her feelings about the accordion, she said, “I’m thrilled that the accordion seems to be making a come back in the music scene, and in a whole new way.  It seems to have been welcomed into some modern musical genres, and is powering through to some more mainstream musical groups.  

My hopes for the accordion is that it can break out of its stereotypical polka association, and reach a more wide-spread audience.  However, don’t get me wrong, I of course love the polka – I just want accordion music to reach as many people as possible.  Personally, my favorite accordion genre of music is French musette and jazz.  I would love to try to fuse these styles together with some original musical thoughts of my own, to try to make another direction where the accordion can flourish on today’s music scene.  

I also think that with the forward motion of technology, companies like Roland can help the accordion to reach even wider audiences – which is a really exciting thought.  The ability to play the music that is most relevant with today’s generation can help to change the image of the accordion in young people’s minds. It doesn’t matter so much to me what style of accordion music is getting the most attention – as long as good players are spreading a positive image of accordion, then I’m a happy girl.

The accordion has provided me with a special opportunity to be a unique kind of musician in the music world.  I love being able to play so many different styles of music on one instrument – I think accordion is one of the most versatile instruments.  Also, because there aren’t as many accordionists as say pianists or guitarists, it helps me to set myself a part from the average musician.  I love playing such an amazing and unique instrument.”

For further information:Bakerajo@gmail.com