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At this year’s Colorado Shakespeare Festival, audiences at “The Comedy of Errors” will be wooed back to 1920s Paris by the costumes, the set and of course, an onstage minstrel and her accordion. Because after all, what would summer be without the whimsical sound of the accordion?

For Alicia Baker, the answer to that question is simple: it just wouldn’t be summer.

“When I was six years old, we were on a family vacation and we ended up in Kimberley, British Columbia, during the Kimberley International Old Time Accordion Championships. I recognized the right side of the accordion because I had already been playing piano for two years, and my parents bought me one on the spot.

“After that, we went back for 16 summers in a row so I could compete.”

, originally from Portland, Oregon, grew up in a musical family. Both her parents are choir teachers, nurturing in her a third musical passion: singing.

“So when I went to college at Oregon State University, I earned three bachelor’s degrees … in vocal performance, piano performance and music education.”

Now Baker is in the second year of her master’s in vocal performance and pedagogy at the College of Music. But she still plays her accordion in gigs around the world—including the Mary Rippon Outdoor Theatre this summer.

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