CONTACT: Christine Schneider, (515) 271-4011, Christine.schneider@drake.edu
Lisa Lacher, (515) 271-3119, lisa.lacher@drake.edu
The Drake University Music Department and the Drake University Community School of Music will hold auditions for middle and high school cellists on May 20 to select recipients of scholarship awards for free cello instruction during the 2006-07 academic year.
Ashley Sandor Sidon, assistant professor of cello at Drake, will be the instructor for the private lessons. Prior to her Drake appointment, Sidon was cello teacher/chamber music coach and lecturer in 20th Century music at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in Shanghai, China. While teaching in Shanghai, she toured Southeast Asia to present recitals and master classes at provincial cultural centers, music schools and other concert venues.
Sidon also was instructor of cello and director of chamber music at Earlham College in Indiana. She is cellist and manager of the Emery Trio and a former associate member of the Chicago Civic Orchestra. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Violoncello from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where her principal teacher was internationally acclaimed cellist Yehuda Hanani. During the summer she teaches at the New England Music Camp in Maine.
Applications and audition requirements for the free lessons are available by calling the Drake Community School of Music at (515) 271-4011 or by visiting the Drake Music Web site at www.drake.edu. The application deadline is Monday, May 15.
– 30 –