Ksenija Sidorova - the portrait artist 2026!
She walks through narrow streets, buys fresh tomatoes and pistachio pesto, enjoys her cappuccino and fills an ancient church with the powerful sounds of her accordion: part of the SHMF team visited this year's portrait artist Ksenija Sidorova in her adopted home of Sicily and captured their experiences with her not only in beautiful portraits, but also in a very personal film. You can find the result below.
Ksenija Sidorova is at the centre of the upcoming SHMF summer. She is regarded as one of the leading accordionists of her time - an artist with great stage presence and infectious passion who has taken the accordion out of the folk music corner and given it a place in the classical concert hall.
Born in Riga in 1988, Ksenija Sidorova was introduced to the accordion by her grandmother at the age of six. Initially at the local music school and later while studying at the Royal Academy of Music in London, she discovered the potential of her instrument beyond folklore. She completed her master's degree with honours and international recognition quickly followed: in 2012 she was the first prizewinner of the Bryn Terfel Foundation, in 2015 she performed with Sting at the Royal Albert Hall and in 2017 she received the ECHO Klassik award for Instrumentalist of the Year.
Ksenija Sidorova plays a key role in bringing new recognition to the accordion in classical music. In her programmes, the instrument, which weighs over 20 kilograms and was named Instrument of the Year in 2026, unfolds a fascinating world of sound from over four centuries. To bring the diversity of the accordion to life, she plays original works and arrangements, draws on the folkloristic roots of her instrument and collaborates with contemporary composers - a musician between tradition and innovation.
As an SHMF portrait artist, Ksenija Sidorova presents the full range of her skills in 18 concerts: from solo recitals and intimate chamber music programmes to large orchestral concerts. Right at the beginning of her portrait, she premieres the new accordion concerto by composer and former portrait artist Fazıl Say. With the Estonian Festival Orchestra conducted by Paavo Järvi, she will present the work "Dances" written for her by Estonian composer Tõnu Kõrvits, which she herself describes as a "rock'n'roll concerto" for orchestra and accordion. Her stylistic diversity is also revealed in the song recital with baritone Benjamin Appl, which combines pieces from Beethoven to Schubert and Simon & Garfunkel under the motto "Songs of a lifetime". And in Pietro Roffi's arrangement of Bach's Goldberg Variations for two accordions, she also demonstrates the boundless expressive power of her instrument. Other musical partners she has invited include mandolinist Avi Avital, the Goldmund Quartet, guitarist MILOŠ and the SIGNUM saxophone quartet, with whom she constantly reinvents the accordion and gives it the place in the spotlight that does justice to its unique sound.