In Conversation with Latvian Accordionist Ksenija Sidorova

Early Beginnings

VM: Did you have a musical household?

KS: The choice of instrument actually came from my grandmother. I was six years old when I started. My grandmother asked if I wanted to try and play some folk songs. Later, I went to music school. My parents had to save up quite a lot of money to buy me a professional accordion. I felt that I had a huge responsibility to be serious in making my choice of becoming a musician. When I got the accordion, I teared up because I could hear the difference of the sound of the instrument.

VM: Did you go to a specialist school?

KS: I went to Riga’s first music school alongside an ordinary secondary school for all other subjects. The accordion department didn’t exist yet then at the time at the music school but I was doing music quite seriously with a teacher, so seriously that I was going to the music school almost every day. It was close to what they were doing at a specialist music school.

I believe I went to the right teacher. My teacher, Marija Gasele, introduced me to this instrument and started slowly getting me little classical music pieces because I came from the folk tradition. Eventually it went so naturally onto something serious that, by the age of 12, I knew that I wanted to make it my profession.

VM: Do you still remember your first live stage performance?

KS: My parents recorded my first performance from the start of it. It was a school concert. I was nine, and that was a very big school concert where players of each instrument were chosen and because there were so many students, and choices had to be made. I made the cut and I played a solo piece. I can’t remember the name of the composer but it was a scherzo.

VM: Where did you get motivation for discipline in practising?

KS: I didn’t have anyone push me to practise. As I grew up, I realised that I loved being on stage. It’s a great feeling. It’s super hard because you get nervous, so you need to fight that. There’s a certain level of playing to achieve to be able to be free on stage. And to achieve that level you just need to work hard.

VM: How did growing up in Riga shape you as a musician?

KS: I tried going to a local music college in Latvia. I tried it and hated it. I’m very open about it now because I didn’t like the approach. I felt like it’s only dragging me behind. I already also played the piano at a decent level as a second instrument, and they got me to play percussion. I was already 16 at the time and I was thinking, “Why would I need to play a C major scale on a marimba?” which I can play, given my music training. But I wasn’t going to be a marimba player.

In tenth grade, I had just started studying music with my teacher and with other people like solfege and harmony theory intensively until the solution came. And then, out of nowhere, there was this opportunity to send my recording to the Royal Academy of Music.

Moving to London

VM: What made you decide to go to London to study?

KS: Sometimes in life things just happen like fate, as they say. I was thinking, what am I going to do and where am I going to study? I started at around 12 when I got my first serious accordion. My parents and I thought it would help to have more music in my life, not just secondary school subjects.

There was a teacher from the academy who would take me in and I was really happy. I searched on their website and there was a contemporary music scene, which is important for the accordion, being a new instrument. It was necessary for me to get this exposure. Owen Murray, the professor, immediately wrote back saying that he thought I’d got potential. He asked me to visit. I was 15 at the time.

When I first arrived in London, there was a lot of adjustments to be made; for example, the English that I learnt at school was different to how they spoke in London. When I arrived at the academy, I saw there was a lot of people waiting to audition. I expected only a one-on-one masterclass and not so many people. I thought it was auditions for entrance into graduate school, which wasn’t for me because I hadn’t graduated from secondary school yet at the time. But it turned out I had to play in front of a panel and I was too nervous.

I had to play a second time for somebody else. This was the academy’s auditions for their scholarship but I had no idea at the time. The person I played for next was Curtis Price, who was the principal of the Royal Academy of Music at the time. He requested that I played Vivaldi’s “Winter”, which was on my list of repertoire. He was cool and very relaxed. He told me I was accepted and to come and start in September. I told him that I couldn’t because I hadn’t graduated from secondary school yet. But it turned out to be a scholarship and I was to start immediately.

The Royal Academy of Music

VM: Do you recall any fond memories from the academy?

KS: These years were the most fruitful, and it was really the years of me forming as a musician because I was only 16 and I went through a lot of things along the way that made me who I am today. I’m very, very thankful to the academy because it really opened up the horizon and I met people who are still here by my side to this day, professors and friends. I have formed some lifelong friendships.

As accordionists, we were exposed to the vocal department, conducting department… I literally went to all the conductor classes just for fun to see what they do there. I attended a lot of new staged operas, even by Mozart, where they needed an accordionist all of a sudden. I was exposed to seeing how the staging of that works. I also went to the masterclasses, like András Schiff, Lilia Zilberstein and Maxim Vengerov. It was priceless.

VM: What was it like studying with Owen Murray?

KS: I came from the Soviet schooling, where the teacher is really sitting on top of you and tells you how to do this and that. I never had a rebellious stage at home but I had this teacher who was very strict.

Owen was at the academy every fortnight only, whereas my teacher was with me practically every day, if not in person, on the phone. Yeah. She knew everything about me. Then there was Owen, who asked me, “What do you think? What do you think about this phrase? How do you think this could be shaped?” In the beginning, I freaked out. I was like, “What do you mean, how do I think? I don’t know!” And that was the thing. I didn’t know and I needed to find out. It was a major turning point for me. I started practising all the time, as much as I could. I forgot to eat. By the second month of my studies, I fell so ill that I really needed to fly back home and be in a hospital for about two weeks. I had pneumonia.

It taught me a lesson of how to look after myself, that life is not just about practising. You have to live and be healthy. This bout of illness also made me realise that I had to start thinking for myself. This was what I was there for, to find my voice. I think, for many musicians, it’s the biggest achievement if they do find their voice or if they are on the right path to do that. Competitions don’t teach you that. When you go into a competition, you have a different skill set that is necessary to win it. Nobody can tell you how the career of a musician works. Nobody can tell you how to build up your own repertoire, or how to take care of your health when travelling and performing and so on. All this was a very slow and gradual learning process which took six years that made me who I am.

VM: How about your peers?

KS: I met so many wonderful people who made wonderful careers and became amazing human beings in different professions. Some of them stayed in music, some didn’t. I had a lot of respect for those who completely changed the course of their lives.

VM: Would you have a role model in mind?

KS: Definitely my professor. And, of course, all the wonderful performers that I saw at the masterclasses that they gave me an inspiration to continue on my musical path and to achieve something for myself. The academy really opened me up to a lot of things.

Performing

VM: Any interesting incidents to share with us while working with conductors?

KS: I’ve been quite lucky to be exposed to working with different conductors from different cultures, from different orchestras. One of my favourites is Paavo Järvi, who is widely recognised as one of the greatest living conductors nowadays.

I always admired Paavo and the fact that a conductor of such magnitude and such level is so humble. From the first moment when I was just starting out as a young musician, he would ask me what I think. It’s such respect for a soloist of whatever level. When I first met him at the rehearsal, I felt a little bit intimidated and nervous, and I wanted to do my best.

He made me feel so good on stage, and he was asking for my opinion. He really gives you space and makes you feel welcomed.

VM: What is the most embarrassing moment, most bizarre thing live on stage? How did you react?

KS: I very rarely wear a dress on stage as an accordion is too heavy for me to play for even five minutes while standing, let alone sustaining a full recital. So, I usually play in pants.

There was my debut at the Wigmore Hall in London. As usual, I was starting to put my concert pants on, and I noticed that right there, right between my legs, they tore! I had to go on stage and there was this massive hole in my pants. I thought, in 10 minutes I had to be on stage, let’s make the best of it. Bearing in mind that the stage in the Wigmore Hall is quite high from the seating area and performers would be very exposed! Luckily, they had this gaffer tape, so I taped my pants.

Recordings

VM: Let’s talk about your albums. In 2011, you recorded Classical Accordion. It is interesting to hear Bach, Mozart and Scarlatti played on accordion. You have Schnittke as well in this album. How did you come up with this programme?

KS: I started this record to keep a memory of a certain recital. For the 2011 album Classical Accordion, you can listen to it as a concert because this is a selection of pieces that go together from one to another. This was what I was trying to learn at the time.

VM: Where did you get inspiration for your 2013 album Fairy Tales (with music by Grieg, Mendelssohn, Trojan and a Czech composer)?

KS: Fairy Tales was a concerto album. It was my first encounter with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, which was important to me. It was interesting to make an album with an orchestra for the first time, to work from bar to bar and to see the orchestral scene in the UK, with their wonderful level of sight-reading. I was very happy with the outcome.

VM: How did the 2016 Carmen album (a transcription from music of Bizet’s Carmen) come about?

KS: The Carmen CD was recorded for the Deutsche Grammophon label. I was glad to be a part of it because it was a very important milestone for me. It’s one of these very interesting projects that I did, and then it’s quite difficult to put it on the road. I toured it extensively in these two years around the album but it’s a very expensive project to tour. So that’s why right now it only exists, unfortunately, on the CD. But it was amazing because the arrangements were done in such a unique way.

VM: Piazzolla Reflections was released in 2021, with much dedication to Piazzolla. But you also have Bach in this album. What is the connection here?

KS: Piazzolla Reflections was based around Piazzolla with contemporary composers who wrote pieces for me and for the classical accordion. There’s going to be a lot of new music with Bach on the side. The D minor concerto to me is like a rock and roll concerto of Bach times. It’s been performed on such different instruments that I thought there is no harm in playing it on accordion.

Right now, I’m finalising a new album for Alpha Classics, to be named Crossroads, which is coming out in October this year. There will be music from modern composers like Dobrinka Tabakova, Sergey Akhunov, who is based in Moscow. And there is going to be quite a lot of music by Bach in there too.

VM: Which is your favourite album? Why?

KS: It’s very hard for me to pick out something from the past. I really love Piazzolla Reflections because it was recorded in the times of pandemic. When everyone was feeling down and feeling like, “Are we ever going to live normal life again?” At that time, I just had Gabriela, my daughter. She was eight months old, so my hands were full. I was stuck at home without possibility of leaving the flat. I wanted to continue practising because I’m a musician and this is what it should be like.

On Education

VM: You were appointed as a visiting professor at the academy. What is your commitment like with them? Do you find teaching rewarding?

KS: I go to the academy every year, around twice a year, for one-to-one classes and masterclasses. I don’t get to teach a lot. For me, this is a privilege to come to teach at the academy, because you’re already working with students of a certain level who come prepared. Sometimes you see that there is a lack of commitment and then you feel you are in a place to say, “Come on, you’re at the Royal Academy of Music. Get yourself together.”

When the student days run out, you’re all of a sudden let out into this big world without really knowing what to do. I’m trying to tackle this problem now, as a visiting professor with the accordion students. I try to tell them to think about the bigger picture. They don’t think about the bigger problem like how they were going to support themselves with a career. Some of them think they can do this by teaching but, even if you teach, you need to have so much knowledge to be able to pass it on to the student. It’s a significant responsibility and it can’t be a side hustle.

I love it because it helps me open up another door in my own musicianship and it’s definitely something different.

VM: What do you think you would do to enhance accordion performance from the educational point of view?

KS: I was constantly inspired by my professor, Owen Murray. He basically put all his life aside for the instrument. He always had an idea that we must get accordion into one of the conservatories in the UK because there wasn’t an accordion department anywhere, so he was working towards that. And people had so much prejudice towards this instrument. They wouldn’t even say the word “accordion” when referring to the instrument; they say “that thing”.

Sir David Lumsden, who was the principal of the academy, told Owen to prepare a recital for all the professors to convince them that the accordion deserves a place at the academy.

VM: If you were to give a music student one piece of advice, what would it be?

KS: Try everything. Find your language. Find what you’re good at and what your strength is. It’s a bit like what I teach my kids. Find your ikigai. It’s the Japanese term for discovering your purpose of life. Basically, you need to discover what you’re good at, find what the world needs, and how to make a living using that skill.

VM: Would you like to share with us how you juggle with your time with your family and your busy performing schedule?

KS: Our daughter just celebrated her fifth birthday. Our second son is celebrating his second birthday, and our third child is five months old. By the third child, I have had so much experience have become an expert. I will stop the breastfeeding when our youngest hits six months old because I’m starting to travel and I’m actually going on long travels such as Shanghai.

I also want to get more sleep. I have an aura ring, which is like a Fitbit. It tracks your sleep. It’s like a reminder that you need to get some rest. If you don’t get enough rest, you’re not going to be productive. And I have, luckily, both sides of the family who are very helpful with the kids. And my husband is supportive because he knows what makes me happy on stage makes me a better mum at home.

I just try to be as productive as I can with my schedule. I was literally scheduling everything.

Professional Life

VM: How satisfied are you with life as an artist?

KS: I believe that you shape your own life. I am satisfied with the one that I chose for myself and with the way it’s shaping according to my choices. We all have a choice for this or that in life. Life is about balance. I think right now I’m happy with the balance that I have.

VM: How would you describe your relationship with your instrument?

KS: I always look at my instrument as another child because, you know, he gets a seat on the plane. I think, for any musician, your instrument is a little bit like a human, like you have to make sure it’s not too humid where it sleeps nor too dry. And, of course, it’s my one darling instrument that I’ve had now for about 10 years.

VM: Do you work with living composers? If so, anything interesting experience to share with us?

KS: You never know what you’re going to get. Very often you don’t get a draft, you just get a piece. In my career so far, there has been one case where I actually refused premiering a piece because I believed that, even after working so hard with the composer, I thought, if I try to make even the best of it, I really did not believe in the piece, that’s all. No audience will come to hear an accordion concert again if I did this. The orchestra was already paid for. My management were very nice and supportive. So, I rejected the proposal and of course the composer was not happy about it.

When I work with a composer now, I am lucky to be able to get an idea of who I want to work with and hear their music and really talk to them before they write. I’d like to talk to them about how I see my instrument and what I want to do for this instrument. I would talk to the composer whose musical language I admire. For example, with Turkish pianist and composer Fazil Say, I have no idea what he’ll write, but I adore his music. And I think that his folklore flavour will just play very nicely on accordion, so I believed in it.

Same with Dobrinka Tabakova. I just always wanted a piece from her. Last year, I said to her, “I know you’re so busy, but do you have something that needs performing? Maybe there is a piece you already wrote and it was never performed.” She said there was a piano concerto that was performed only once. She asked me if I wanted to see the score. I read the score, and thought right away that it was perfect for the accordion.

VM: If you could take yourself back a few years, what was one of your favourite music discoveries that helped you realise that playing music was your passion in life?

KS: I found that I liked being on stage and I truly realised that it requires work. It doesn’t happen by itself. This realisation shaped the ultimate goal and the outcome. It was a sequence of little events that led to it, and not a specific moment that made me want to become musician.

VM: You have a big fan following. Do you interact with them?

KS: Yes, I’m on social media. Whenever I receive some messages I always try to respond, even if it takes ages sometimes, but I do come back to them.

Covid-19

VM: As for pandemic, I supposed it affected everyone. Did you look for other ways to perform during the lockdown?

KS: During the two months of break that we had in Europe from Covid, we flew with an ensemble, some of my very good friends to Germany, Schloss Elmau, where we did a recording and released a recording of Piazzolla’s concerto, which was from live concerts.

VM: Any future plans such as upcoming projects that you can tell us about?

KS: Right now, I’m working with Tõnu Kõrvits, an Estonian composer. Next year, I’ll be working with Dobrinka Tabakova on an accordion concerto. I’m also working on another recording with the Estonian Festival Orchestra, with Paavo Järvi this July. It’s going to be two new concertos. In two years, Fazil Say, Turkish composer. I’m going back to the US next year to do a solo recital at the Carnegie. I also have some orchestras lined up such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. I’m excited about that.