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Q & A with Sara Davis Buechner

Interview

Sara Davis Buechner is an internationally acclaimed concert pianist. She has performed in every state and province of North America as a recitalist, chamber musician, and soloist. We asked her about her life in music, and the piece she’ll be performing with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. 

You’re playing Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra in February. How would you describe this piece, for people who may not be familiar with it?

Of Camille Saint-Saëns’ five Piano Concertos, his second in G minor is his most popular, for obvious reasons. It has a unique dramatic flow — ruminative, Bachian first movement; delightfully insouciant Scherzo; and hell-bent-for-leather final movement that exploits the pianist’s virtuoso abilities to their maximum. It’s a tour de force with a decidedly Gallic, Moulin Rouge flavor.

How old were you when you began taking piano lessons, and when did you know that you wanted to pursue music as your career?

Musicians never choose their careers, rather it is music that chooses them. Playing the piano for me, is a calling. And I’ve been called to do that since the age of 4 when my first piano lessons began.

You’re a music professor, too. Can you tell us about that work, and what you like about teaching?

I’ve taught at many institutions over the past 35 years — New York University, the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, various places in Japan and China as well. I currently reside in Newark, New Jersey and commute between Philadelphia (Temple University) and New York City (Greenwich House Music School, where I am the chair of the piano department).

Teaching is a way of repaying my own teachers, the greatly inspiring people who led me on my own journey from beginning lessons to international piano competitions in my twenties. Music is an eternal thread that passes through countless lives, and as we pursue our lives we hold that thread first in reception and hand it to the next generation, as best we can.

You’ve been a champion and advocate for the LGBTQ+ community for many years. How does your experience as a trans woman inform your work and your capacity to connect with people?

As a transgender woman with a public persona I find myself in the unasked-for position of being a spokesperson and an advocate. Because there are so many trans people who do not have that honor, or luxury. I’m speaking of people who cope with hate and discrimination and fear, every day of their lives. So let me simply say that whenever I walk onto a concert stage, I am well aware that my mere presence says a lot, to many.

Sara Davis Buechner will perform with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra on February 6 in a program entitled Schubert, Strauss, and Saint-Saëns. She will also perform in the February 7 Piano and Prosecco concert. Find tickets and information at winspearcentre.com