Piano Talk: Sarah Cahill

The Piano Talk series explores the depth and richness of the piano through performance and discussion of its repertoire. The first Piano Talk of the 2020 season features Bay Area pianist Sarah Cahill. An influential exponent of diversity in programming, Cahill reveals bias in the standard repertoire through side-by-side comparisons of works written by women and men. To celebrate the centennial of the 19th Amendment, Cahill is advocating for the integration of works written by women composers into standard repertoire for pianists. Demonstrating with pieces by Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, Fanny Mendelssohn, Gabriela Ortiz, and others — along with a “blind listening” test confronting our biases about women composers — Cahill asks pianists to at least question, if not challenge, the canon of works we all study and perform at conservatories and universities and music schools around the world.