On a recent Tuesday morning, a crew from the Civic Music Association arrived at the Salisbury House lawn to prepare for the third week of their free Belin Quartet summer concert series. CMA’s Executive Director Ashley Sidon was there leading the setup efforts, though avoiding any heavy lifting.
Just a few hours later that evening, she was down the street at Willow on Grand, welcoming audiences to the opening concert of this year’s Zenith Chamber Music Festival, which she founded and has directed for eleven seasons.
Double-header days like this have become part of Sidon’s rhythm. She stepped into the role of executive director at Civic Music last July, just as the organization was preparing to launch its 100th season and undertake a $1 million capital campaign. In addition to leading Civic Music and Zenith, she’s a professor of cello and chamber music at Drake University — and this year, she’s been navigating treatment for breast cancer.
I caught up with her after her busy week, and she explained that Zenith started with a conversation and a cup of coffee. “A donor reached out to me and said, ‘Ashley, you tend to get things done. What do you think would be a good way to give back to the community?’”
Through her leadership, that first conversation became a festival focused on chamber music that’s personal, high-quality and free to the public.
In the early years, Sidon handpicked solo players and curated the repertoire herself. “People got to know the players because I kept bringing back the same people, but about four years ago, we decided it was a lot to handle all the rehearsing and schedules of people that weren’t already in a group.”
Since then, Zenith has featured mostly pre-formed ensembles, largely selected from friends, colleagues and trusted recommendations from her wide network. “My biggest goal is to pick musicians who are top-notch players as well as very personable, who believe in what Zenith believes in — which is connecting with audiences and presenting diverse repertoire.”
This year the festival kicked off with Yang and Olivia, a sought-after piano and violin duo known for incorporating storytelling into dynamic programs featuring Western classical and Chinese folk music styles. They invited the audience to contemplate the definition of music and expressed admiration for musicians' ability to “transmute experiences and emotions in such a variety of ways.”
The following night, Kansas City-based singer and Sidon’s former cello student Leah Barnett opened Zenith’s second concert with an a cappella rendition of Eric Whitacre’s "Goodnight Moon." Sidon introduced the venue, Mainframe Studios, as a first-time partner, mentioning that each year the festival partners with at least two new locations.
The program that night featured Iowa City guitarists Oleg Timofeyev and Dan Caraway on a variety of seven-string guitars, including a cittern — a seven-string guitar popular in 18th-century England and exported to countries like Poland. They also performed duets on Russian seven-string guitars, including a beloved polonaise by Vladimir Vysotsky and other pieces of Czech, Polish and Ukrainian origin.
This was the second year Zenith featured a youth chamber ensemble, the Zenith Virtuosi. “The last couple years, we’ve partnered with Hector Aguero, the conductor at Drake who’s creating the virtuosi chamber orchestra. It’s an audition only process … five Sundays of rehearsals in January and February, and then they put on a concert.”
This year, Zenith provided another performance opportunity for the young players. They got to perform side-by-side with the Indianapolis Quartet for the festival finale. “They were so energized. It was awesome,” noted Sidon.
Sidon’s not slowing down anytime soon. Through June and July, she’s also helping coordinate Civic Music’s Belin Quartet series — free Tuesday evening performances at the picturesque setting of the Salisbury House lawn. So far this summer, the quartet, now in its 25th season, has performed works by familiar names such as Mozart and Dvořák, as well as pieces by Florence Price, Caroline Shaw, William Grant Still and Elena Kats-Chernin. Upcoming concerts will feature Mendelssohn, Schubert, Fauré and Hermann, among others.
Since taking on the role of executive director at CMA, Sidon has encouraged the group to broaden their programming. “That’s something I’d stressed the importance of, and they were happy to jump on board with me on that.”
As they diversify their repertoire, the ensemble has leaned into expanded techniques. Before performing pieces by living female composers, Chernin and Shaw, they demonstrated nontraditional techniques such as pizzicato with the bow touching the string, and bowing the string lightly so that the sound produced is only a hiss or slight harmonic.
As she juggles being a professor and heading not one, but two chamber music institutions in Des Moines, she’s been open about her cancer diagnosis and treatment. “The more I talk about it, the more people I know go and get their overdue mammograms,” she says, even noting that one friend did end up having breast cancer.
For Sidon, one of the hardest parts of the experience has been not being able to play the cello. “My friends would say, ‘Well, at least you can take solace in your cello playing. ’But I actually couldn’t because of the location of my cancer. I couldn’t rest my cello against my body.”
Still, she’s been thinking about how to turn that experience into something supportive for others facing cancer. She and a close friend — also a cellist, also navigating cancer — are planning a meditative two-cello recording project. “I’m trying to think of how I can give back to people who have or will be going through this in the future.”
To see all upcoming CMA events, including an evening with Yo-Yo Ma this November make sure to check out their events page.