Ksenija Sidorova is "the full package: staggeringly talented, musically polyglot and charismatic, to boot" (Chicago Tribune). Widely recognised as the leading ambassador of the classical accordion, she is celebrated for her "verve, style, attitude and impeccable virtuosity" (ZealNYC), bringing a compelling blend of technical brilliance and expressive musicality to every performance.
Her repertoire spans over three centuries, encompassing works by J. S. Bach, Astor Piazzolla, Erkki-Sven Tüür and Václav Trojan, alongside a growing body of contemporary works written specifically for her. A passionate advocate for new music, she continues to expand the accordion repertoire through new commissions and collaborations.
As Portrait Artist at the 2026 Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Ksenija Sidorova premiered Fazil Say's Accordion Concerto at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and presented ten orchestral and chamber programmes across the summer. Following its successful premiere, the Fazil Say concerto forms a central focus of her 2026/27 season with performances across Europe and Asia. Recent commissions include Tõnu Kõrvits' accordion concerto "Dances" (2024), premiered in the 2025/26 season at the Pärnu Music Festival, the Tonhalle Zürich and with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, as well as Dobrinka Tabakova's "Sublime Dreams of Living Machines" (2025), which Ksenija Sidorova brings this season to the Dresdner Philharmonie and gives its Swedish premiere. As the 2027 Focus Artist of the ZKO Festival, she presents four varied programmes with Zürcher Kammerorchester.
Recent highlights include performances with Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, including at the Last Night of the Proms, Münchner Philharmoniker, Orchestre National de France, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester and many others. She collaborates with conductors such as Marin Alsop, Paavo Järvi, Kirill Karabits, Delyana Lazarova, Vasily Petrenko, Andris Poga, Christian Reif and Nil Venditti.
Ksenija Sidorova enjoys numerous chamber collaborations including Avi Avital, with whom she performs in Montreux and on a tour to North America; Benjamin Appl, with concerts at Wigmore Hall, Vancouver Recital Series and Club Musical de Québec; SIGNUM Saxophone Quartet, presenting their unique "ANIMA" programme in Istanbul, Vienna and Munich; Thomas Hampson, with whom she performed at Tonhalle Zürich, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Beethoven-Haus Bonn and Bergen Festival, and also with Goldmund Quartet, Miloš, Nemanja Radulović, Andreas Ottensamer and Tine Thing Helseth.
Ksenija Sidorova has given several solo recitals, including at Carnegie Hall and Vienna Musikverein. A regular guest at major festivals, she has appeared at Verbier Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Rheingau Musik Festival, Kissinger Sommer, Gstaad Menuhin Festival, MITO SettembreMusica, Ravinia Festival, Mostly Mozart Festival and Music in the Summer Air Festival (MISA) in Shanghai.
Her most recent album, released on Alpha Classics in February 2026, features Erkki-Sven Tüür's "Prophecy", Tõnu Kõrvits' "Dances" and Pēteris Vasks' "The Fruit of Silence", recorded with the Estonian Festival Orchestra and Paavo Järvi, showcasing Ksenija Sidorova’s "high-speed fingerwork, immense subtlety of touch, the most delicate phrasing" (The Times). Her previous Alpha release "Crossroads" (2024) was praised by Gramophone as "another notable demonstration of Sidorova's artistry" and features works by J. S. Bach, Sergey Akhunov, Dobrinka Tabakova and Gabriela Montero. It follows "Piazzolla Reflections" (Alpha, 2021), named "Album of the Month" by BR Klassik and one of the year's best classical albums by Classic Review, and "Carmen" (Deutsche Grammophon, 2016) for which she won the ECHO KLASSIK prize for "Instrumentalist of the Year" in 2017.
Born in Riga, Ksenija Sidorova began playing the accordion at age six, inspired by her grandmother. She studied with Marija Gasele before continuing at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Owen Murray, where she received numerous accolades including the Worshipful Company of Musicians Silver Medal. She was appointed an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in 2016 and a Fellow in 2021.