Respected as both a soloist and chamber musician,Ashley Sandor Sidonis the Briggs Endowed Professor of Cello at Drake University and Executive Director of the Zenith Chamber Music Festival. As an invited performer and clinician, Sidon’s credits include international solo performances across China, in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Canada, Taiwan, Italy, Germany, France, Poland, and Brazil. Nationally, her performances as a chamber musician and as an orchestral soloist have taken her to the leading universities, chamber music festivals, and concert stages from Maine to California. An advocate for new music, Ashley Sidon has commissioned new works by Phillip Koplow, Matthew Quayle, Roger Vogel, Miguel del Aguila, and William Dougherty; and in 2014 she performed the Polish premiere of Ned Rorem’s cello concerto on tour in Poland. She has premiered new chamber music and unaccompanied works to critical acclaim nationally, including in New York City, Cincinnati, Chicago; and internationally, including Beijing, Shanghai, Paris, and Arcidosso. Dr. Sidon previously was cello teaching artist at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in Shanghai, China.
Dr. Sidon has presented lectures/presentations at professional conferences including College Music Society Southeast Convention, the Music Educators National Conference (MENC), MENC Southeast Convention, and the Iowa Music Educators Conference. Her research document titled, "Lineage and Comparison of Versions of Igor Stravinsky’s Suite Italienne" was published by the Hawaii International Conference on the Arts. Ashley Sandor Sidon has performed under the direction of artists such as Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Christopher Wilkins. She has appeared with numerous orchestras, including the Chicago Civic Orchestra, the Zazrbe Filharmonia (Poland), The Minnesota Orchestra, Aspen Festival Orchestra, the Butte Symphony Orchestra, the Des Moines Symphony Orchestra, the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, Colorado College Music Festival Orchestra, the Florida Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, Daytona I Solisti Orchestra, the DaSalo Chamber Orchestra, Athens Symphony Orchestra, and the Drake Symphony Orchestra. Dr. Sidon performs on an Antonio Gagliano cello and Dominique Peccatte bow.
