The Musical Society "the harmonica" was founded in April 1975, making the band its official presentation on December 8, 1976, under the direction of D. Gabriel García Martínez. At that moment, the band was composed of 52 members, of which 90% were 10-year-olds.
Shortly thereafter, he assumed the address D. Pedro Maciá Castillo. In 1980 he took over the D. Antonio Ruda Peco Band until September 2005. At that time he was appointed director D. Gonzalo Berná Pic, remaining until today. Today the band has nearly 90 federated musicians and a large number of professional musicians trained in their school who work in different orchestras and professional bands from all over Spain, as well as in different teaching centres.
Together with the Department of Culture of the city Council of Cox, organizes annually the cycle "February MUSICAL". This year has fulfilled its 25th anniversary, among others with performances offered by the orchestra of the Palau de les Arts or the illustrious and professor saxophonist D. Pedro Iturralde. By actions such as those mentioned above, the cycle organized by our society has been postulated as a benchmark in both the province of Alicante and the region of Murcia.
The band of our society has performed in the Palau de Les Arts and Palau de la Música of Valencia, ADDA (Auditorium of the Diputación de Alicante), main theatre of Alicante, auditorium of Castellón, Palau de Altea, Auditorium "Víctor Villegas" of Murcia, great Theatre of Manzanares, among others. Outside our borders, it is worth mentioning the concert that he offered in 2007 in the French town of Narbonne.
This group usually performs charitable concerts among which we can highlight those made for the benefit of the city of Lorca, for the earthquake, for the benefit of the Alzheimer's center, for the benefit of Caritas, etc, always ready to be needed.
It is worth mentioning the large number of qualified musicians who today work in different orchestras and professional bands from all over Spain, as well as in different teaching centres (conservatories, secondary education centres, music schools, etc.), with the common Denominator that all are of Cox and have formed in the Musical Society "the harmonica" giving their first notes in our band. This is the result that since its founding, the executive Boards, directors and, of course, the musicians, have worked tirelessly for music and culture in our town.
Focusing on the successes of our band, then we list some of the awards obtained in different competitions, both nationally and internationally.
- First prize and honorable mention in the international competition Villa de "La Senia" (Tarragona) in 2013.
- First prize in the third section of the International Band Competition Ciudad de Valencia in the year 1996.
- Second prize in the International Band Competition City of Valencia in the years 1994 and 2018.
- Third prize in the second section of the International Band Competition Ciudad de Valencia in the year 2007.
- Second prize in the second section of the National Band Competition Ciudad de Murcia in the years 1995 and 2009.
- First prize and honorable mention in the second section of the Valencian Community competition in the years 1999 and 2008.
- First prize in the second section of the Valencian Community competition in the years 2005 and 2011.
- Second prize, in different sections of the Valencian Community competition in the years 1993, 1998 and 2006.
- First prize and honorable mention in first and second section of the Contest of The Excellency Diputación Provincial de Alicante in the years 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2011 and 2015.
- First prize in the Agost Festal Music contest in 2015.
- Second prize in the National contest of Music Festa de Elda (Alicante) in 1998 and 2016.
As a summary, and by way of synthesizing all those unnamed awards, in the 40 years of history of the "harmonica", our band has obtained 12 honorable mentions, 20 first prizes, 13 second prizes and 8 third prizes.
In addition to these awards, the band of our society has recorded thanks to the funding of The Excellency Cox Town Hall the CD entitled "The Sound of a people" in the year 2016 with the record label of our music bands, which They interpret different compositions relevant to the people of Cox and our society.