The Armenian Mirror-Spectator. BUÑOL, Spain – Alicia Sargsyan Serrano, 12-year-old daughter of Arsen Sargsyan and Pilar Serrano Poles, is a top contender in the second phase of the Online Music Performance Competition I of Buñol, a town in the province of Valencia, Spain.
Sargsyan was ranked 27 in the total of 632 participants in the first phase of the contest (https://www.mpmusic.es/concurso). She performed the work Los Danzones numbers 5 and 2 by Arturo Márquez on the saxophone. Sargsyan said, “There’s a lot of quality at the concert, but I’m going to do my best to be in the finals.”
All the contestants have made a current video, recorded during the days of COVID-19 confinement. in which they demonstrate their musical skills. Viewers must vote for the three candidates they believe offer the best musical quality. The top five will go straight to the final of their age category, which will be live streamed through a website and social networks.
Local newspaper article about Alicia Sargsyan, continued
Local newspaper coverage of Sargsyan
Sargsyan said, “I started to play the saxophone because my mother did it too, and a year later I dared to play the piano. In the end, I went ahead and played both equally.” Sargsyan entered the Melilla Conservatory of Music in 2015 at the age of 8, and has since played both instruments. Her mother was her saxophone teacher there, while Magdalena Muñoz Bautista became her piano teacher.
Sargsyan has competed successfully in several competitions previously. In 2018 she was a finalist in the 1st Young Performers Contest of the Professional Conservatory of Music of Melilla in the Children’s Category of Wind and Piano modalities. She was also a finalist in 2019 in the II Young Performers Contest at the Professional Conservatory of Music of Melilla, in the Children’s Piano category, and won the first prize in the wind instruments category and in the unique chamber music category with the Alborán trio (flute, oboe and saxophone). In July 2019, she was awarded the first prize in the Wind-Wood category in Section B in the V International Music Competition of the Fundació Sanganxa in Llosa de Ranes (Valencia).
Currently, she is continuing her first year in professional music studies, and has been once again a finalist in the III Young Performers Contest of the Professional Conservatory of Music of Melilla in the children’s category, in the piano category, and in the unique category of chamber music with the Ensemble Alborán (flute, oboe, saxophone and piano).
She has performed concerts in Melilla and on December 6, 2019, in Al Hoceima, Morocco, in collaboration with the Spanish Embassy in Morocco and the Ministry of Foreign Education (Rabat) at the Spanish Institute Melchor de Jovellanos in Al Hoceima. She has taken advanced courses with Abdón García Barberá and Cécile Dubois and she is a member of the S.U.M Santa Cecilia de Moncofar (Castellón, Spain).
The organization of this concert by the MPMusic Foundation of Buñol highlights the effects that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on society in recent months, changing all behaviors. MpMusic is a high-performance music education center endorsed by several Spanish universities, the purpose of which “is the creation of university music studies pioneering in Spain, Europe and with the capacity for internationalization.”
Due to the current situation caused by COVID-19, MpMusic has decided to create a music performance contest “to alleviate as far as possible the consequences of social confinement, and especially that of musicians.” This contest takes place in several consecutive online qualifiers, in which participants can test their musical talent. “In these difficult times it can be of great help to the musical training of many performers, giving them initiative and a goal to study for, a musical challenge.”
The young Sargsyan asks for the support of online audiences so she can compete in the final. Some of her earlier performances can be heard on YouTube.
