Program for Two Pianos and Four Hands
This concert celebrates the arrival of our very own 1935 Baldwin concert grand piano, one that’s joining a sister instrument that we’ve had on a (very much-appreciated) long-term loan.
Our new instrument was donated by none other than Sarah Cahill, who donated this piano after composer Terry Riley, upon his recent move to Japan, gave Sarah his beloved Mason & Hamlin. We had it fully rebuilt by Brandon Essex, with new strings and hammers and we are very pleased with the results.
Of course, Terry Riley was one of my compositional inspirations and so it feels fitting that this program features a composition that was deeply influenced by Terry’s work. After This Same Temple premiered in 1976 at the University Art Museum in Berkeley by pianists Phil Aaberg and Rae Imamura, it went on to be my first widely performed composition. —Paul Dresher
Regina Myers performs as a solo artist and with ensembles around the Bay Area. She received a Bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and a Master’s in Piano Performance and Literature from Mills College, where she focused on new and experimental music under the guidance of pianist Marc Shapiro, ensemble leader, and composer Steed Cowart and percussion master William Winant. In 2004 she founded the concert series, and now ensemble, New Keys, whose mission is to surface and promote the newest and most innovative music for the piano. She has participated in the Hot Air, Switchboard, Garden of Memory Summer Solstice, and Intermusic SF SF Music Day music festivals and has had the honor of playing many concerts with the William Winant Percussion Group as well as the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players. She can be heard on Luciano Chessa’s album Petrolio, Danny Clay/Joseph Colombo LP (with New Keys), and on Eighty Trips Around the Sun: Music by and for Terry Riley on which she plays four-hand music by Terry Riley with her duo partner Sarah Cahill. Regina prides herself on expanding the reach of new music for piano by commissioning new works and organizing concerts for their premieres and recording. She relishes working with young and emerging composers as well as keeping seminal new music masterpieces alive.
Recently called “a sterling pianist and an intrepid illuminator of the classical avant-garde” by The New York Times, Sarah Cahill is the dedicatee of more than seventy compositions, including works by John Adams, Terry Riley, Frederic Rzewski, Pauline Oliveros, Paul Dresher, Roscoe Mitchell, and Annea Lockwood. Recent appearances include San Francisco Symphony’s SoundBox, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the Detroit Institute of the Arts, and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Upcoming appearances include an all-day concert at the Barbican Centre in London and a collaboration with the San Francisco Girls Chorus and composer Theresa Wong. With her duo partner Regina Myers, she has performed recently at Old First Concerts and at Flower Piano. She was named a 2018 Champion of New Music, awarded by the American Composers Forum (ACF). She is on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and her radio show, Revolutions Per Minute, can be heard every Sunday from 6 to 8 pm on KALW in San Francisco. She also gives regular pre-concert lectures for the San Francisco Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Sarah Cahill and Regina Myers Piano Duo (Photo by Miranda Sanborn)