Accordionist Alicia Baker won first place in the 2013 Open Division of the 2013 Leavenworth International Accordion Celebration which was held in Leavenworth, Washington, June 20-23rd. It was hosted by the Northwest Accordion Society.

Alicia Baker is a 21 year old self-professed music fanatic from Milwaukie, Oregon. She has been playing the accordion since the age of 6, as well as studying piano and voice. Alicia is a 2013 graduate of Oregon State University, where she was a music major and earned degrees in music education, piano performance, and vocal performance.

Her future dreams include teaching choral music, along with performing every chance she gets! Alicia has had much success on the accordion, winning various competitions including the “Happy Hans Open” at the Kimberley International Old-Time Accordion Competition in 2007, 2010, 2011 and 2012. In addition, in 2009 Alicia won the privilege of representing the USA at the Roland International V-Accordion Competition in Rome, Italy.

She has since performed solo concerts at the Kimberley & Leavenworth Old Time Accordion Festivals, American Accordion Association Convention, Cotati Accordion Festival, the Accordionists and Teachers Guild International festival, and the NAMM show. In addition, Alicia performed the 3rd movement of Nikolai Chaikin’s “Accordion Concerto in B-flat Major” with the Corvallis symphony in October 2011.

Alicia strives to play all genres of music well, showing the versatility of her abilities and of the instrument. Some of her favorites include polkas, french musettes, jazz, pop, and techno. Alicia currently works for Roland as an accordion product specialist, where she hopes to continue spreading the joy of accordion music as well as increase the popularity of this wonderful instrument.

For further information: Bakerajo@gmail.com