Ksenija Sidorova squeezes out support for accordion in classical-music world

Invented in the early part of the 19th century, the accordion became a central instrument in the folk and popular music of countries across Europe, North America and South America. But it remains rare on classical stages.

Latvian accordionist Ksenija Sidorova is trying to change that in part by premiering a concerto a year. She is currently learning a new one by Fazil Say, a noted Turkish pianist and composer, and last year she debuted a work in the form by Bulgarian composer Dobrinka Tabakova.

“So we have some really nice ones,” she said of the growing list of accordion concertos. “It’s becoming a thing.”

Sidorova is quick to acknowledge that the accordion is a long way from having the ubiquitous presence of violins or pianos as classical solo instruments, but she sees significant progress. “I think there is a lot still to be done to promote the instrument,” she said, “but now we are in a good spot to say, ‘It’s known. It’s not any more such a novelty.’”

The accordionist will continue her missionary work for the instrument when she makes her Chicago Symphony Orchestra debut in concerts April 2-4. She will join Paavo Järvi, a regular guest conductor with the orchestra, as soloist in Prophecy for accordion and orchestra (2007) by Estonian composer Erkki-Sven Tüür.

“When I got an invitation to play with the Chicago Symphony,” Sidorova said, “it stayed like a red alert on my mind — something to really look forward to. And I’m excited we’re bringing this piece there. It’s proper, amazing repertoire with a wonderful conductor, so I am a lucky person.”

Sidorova performed at the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park in 2016 and 2018, but she after the births of her children, she then took a break from traveling to the United States. Now that the youngest is 2, she feels more able to travel longer distances from her home in Sicily.

The Chicago concerts are coming on the heels of Sidorova’s latest recording, a February release on the European boutique label, Alpha Classics, that features Prophecy with Järvi and the Estonian Festival Orchestra.

Sidorova, now 37, discovered the accordion via folk music, when she spent summers in Russia with her grandparents. Her grandmother thought it would be a great idea for her, when she was 6 or so, to have a summer hobby, so her grandmother pulled out an old accordion and tried to teach the youngster how to play a few songs on it.

“Very basic,” Sidorova said, “but I had fun doing that, and she was eventually singing as well, so we had a whole show going on at home. By the time my parents came to collect me before school started, they were not impressed with the choice of instrument. They thought music was a great hobby, but why that?”

Eventually, though, her parents came around in large part because Sidorova liked the accordion so much, and she began lessons on it at a local music school in Riga. “I happened to be in the right hands, with the right teacher [Marija Gasele], who showed me the possibilities and what made it classical and what could be done with it,” Sidorova said.

Because Latvia was formerly part of the Soviet Union, it has retained much of the strict approach to music education long associated with the Soviet regime. “We have to work on technique and really get into it,” Sidorova said. “It’s not just for fun. It’s a serious job to play an instrument. The accordion became very serious very early on, and I treated it so.”

Sidorova went on to obtain her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music at the Royal Academy of Music in London. One of the early turning points in her career came in 2016, when she recorded an album on the Deutsche Grammophon label featuring an accordion take on George Bizet’s opera Carmen. (It was that offering that she and five other musicians brought to Ravinia in 2016.)

“Of course, having such a big label behind you helps,“ she said. ”Helps make it more known and helps promote it among general music audiences.”

Around the same time, Sidorova got another boost when Järvi called and asked if she would be interested in serving as soloist for a performance of Prophecy. “Of course, I said yes. What an honor it would be. We did it, and then we did it so many more times all over the world that it became it our good-luck charm, this piece.”

Prophecy was written at the behest of Finnish accordionist Mika Väyrynen. “Mika pressured me to write this concerto for four whole years,” Tüür said via email, “but since I didn’t have a bright, constructive idea, every time he called, I said, ‘Not yet.’ But he did not give up. And probably over the years, my subconscious worked on it so that at some point I was ready to start.”

The resulting concerto has since been performed some 40 times, usually with Väyrynen or Sidorova as soloist. Among the orchestras that have programmed it are the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich (where Järvi is music director), Munich Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra London and Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo.

In writing the concerto, which has four movements performed without breaks, Tüür was fascinated with the sound combinations between the accordion and groups of instruments within the orchestra. “When writing for the accordion,” he said, “you need to understand how sound is created and how it fades. How the work of the bellows can be compared to the work of the bow of a string instrument.”

The concerto was originally written for a button accordion, not the keyboard accordion that Siderova uses, and Tüür thought it would be impossible to perform the work on the latter. “Too many out-of-range chords and big jumps that seemed impossible to me,” he said. “But what a miracle! Ksenija made it happen most convincingly.”

Siderova plays what she calls the Rolls-Royce of accordions, an instrument made by Pigini, a company based in Castelfidardo, Italy. “You can get a more standard version,” she said, “but this is a top-notch kind of instrument. As much as it is heavy and big, it is still a very delicate instrument.” The accordion weighs 46 pounds, and she admits that she is tantalized by talk that some other makers are perfecting a lighter version of the instrument. “But this is for now the brand for me,” she said.

Siderova loves the challenge of playing Prophecy, one of the most technically daunting pieces she has ever tackled. She was still at the Royal Academy when she got the request from Järvi to serve as soloist for the piece, and she agreed before actually looking at the score. When she did, she was taken aback. She recalls thinking: “Oh, my god, why did I say yes to this? It’s so complicated. Can we do something easier?”

But she eventually fell in the love with the work. “It’s a like puzzle for the orchestra and the solo instrument. If it falls into place, it such a wonderful feeling of fulfillment. Orchestras find it fascinating. If it’s done right, it’s like, ‘yes!’ You get really great applause at the end, and everyone is happy.”