By Staff Writer Innesa Ranchpar

aving a piano teacher as a mother and being exposed to classical music at an early age, Alin Melik-Adamyan (’08) was expected to be musically inclined.
However, her case was a little different.
Melik-Adamyan’s talent was uncovered when she was only three years old.
She had several episodes where right after her mother’s piano students were finished with their music lesson, she would instantly approach the piano to play exactly what they were playing. However, the difference between Melik-Adamyan and the young students was that she did this through sheer memory for she had no knowledge of notes, while the students did.
Now, at only seventeen, Melik-Adamyan is preparing to have her own recital on June 14 at Herbert Zipper Concert Hall in Downtown L.A.
Melik-Adamyan grew up as a child prodigy. At just five years old, she was playing Beethoven’s “Für Elise,” a piece many play when they are at least a couple of years past the age of five.
“For the past few years, I have been playing it with my eyes closed!” she said.
Melik-Adamyan played individually until the age of four where she began her first lesson at the International School of Music in Glendale. This triggered her love for playing to grow.
That same year, Melik-Adamyan started to perform and participate in competitions. Her family, consisting of her parents and brother, were her support group. Her father was also her biggest fan. 
However, a tragedy struck the family when Melik-Adamyan’s father passed away from pancreatic cancer. He died when she was just eight years old. 
“He supported me in all of my competitions,” she said. “He agreed to pay his last dollar for my piano lessons.”
After his death, Melik-Adamyan’s mother took on the dual role as a mom and dad, and continues doing so to this day.
“I always supported her whether she lost her competition or not,” her mother Narine Melik-Adamyan said. “But to me, she is always a winner.”
Melik-Adamyan has received many scholarships from the Young Musicians’ Foundation for the past nine years. Her greatest award this year has been a $2,500 scholarship from this foundation where she was also named “Top Recipient of the Year.”
Melik-Adamyan’s greatest achievement this year has been her acceptance to Interlochen School of the Arts in Michigan where she has been accepted to their Summer Arts Camp.
For the past 11 years, she studies and takes private lessons two times a week with her teacher, Carl Matthes. He believes she enters a “Piano Heaven, because she plays naturally and with great comfort.” Currently, Melik-Adamyan is working on Beethoven’s “Waldstein Sonata,” achmaninoff’s “Third Concerto,” Rachmaninoff Preludes,  several Chopin Etudes, a Chopin Nocturne, and Bach Preludes and Fugues. These pieces are difficult and technically challenging. For example, Beethoven’s “Waldstein Sonata,” is thirty pages long, which takes about 35 minutes to perform.
 Melik-Adamyan’s goals and eagerness to be successful motivate her. When it comes to playing the piano, she is and has always been very determined to reach perfection. She believes that “practice really does make perfect.”
However, playing the piano is not all this talented musician does. She spends time with her family and friends, goes to the movies, and attends classical recitals.
In the future, Melik-Adamyan plans on attending USC to earn her Master’s Degree in Music. From there, she hopes to attend Julliard, the number one arts school in the nation, to complete her doctorate degree so she can become a concert pianist.
With the success that she has had for the past 13 years, it is safe to say that at the rate she is going, her dream will undoubtedly come true.