The Drake University Department of Music will hold scholarship auditions for middle and high school strings students on Tuesday, May 27. Students will audition either for solo cello lessons or group chamber ensemble lessons.
Selected winners will receive free cello instruction or chamber ensemble coaching during the 2008-09 academic year from Ashley Sandor Sidon, assistant professor of cello at Drake.
For audition requirements and to schedule a time, call Christine Schneider at 515-271-4011, by Monday, May 19.
Prior to her Drake appointment, Sidon was cello teacher, chamber music coach and lecturer at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in Shanghai, China. While teaching in Shanghai, she toured Southeast Asia presenting recitals and master classes at provincial cultural centers, music schools and other concert venues.
Previously, Sidon was instructor of cello and director of chamber music at Earlham College in Indiana and associate member of the Chicago Civic Orchestra.
She earned her Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and has performed under artists such as Pierre Boulez, Daniel Barenboim, Michael Tilson Thomas and Christopher Wilkins. During the summer she is on the faculty of the New England Music Camp.