Date: Saturday, May 26th
Time: Master Class 2:30pm – 4pm, Concert 7:30pm
Venue: Alix Goolden Performance Hall

Tickets:
Master class: by donation
Concert: Adult $25, Senior/Student $15
[Show Your VCM Student Card for Free Admission]
Call 250.386.5311
In person – 900 Johnson St (VCM front desk)

HER EXTENSIVE CLASSICAL REPERTOIRE includes over 100 different piano concertos spanning the breadth of keyboard music from Bach to the music of prominent composers of our time. Her affinities range from Mozart (InTune magazine: “the closest thing to a perfect disc of Mozart piano music known”) to Chopin to Busoni (a friend of the Busoni family, she studied with several of his important pupils) to Japanese music to Ragtime, Novelty Classics and Gershwin (Deseret News: “the greatest performance of Rhapsody in Blue I have ever heard”). She has composed several suites for piano as well as music for chamber ensemble and voice. And she is also one of the very few concert pianists today performing original scores to silent movies, like “Ben Hur” (150 minutes non-stop!) at New York’s Lincoln Center.

CONCERT PROGRAM

Sonata in E-flat, Hob.XVI/52
Franz Josef Haydn (1732-1809)

Allegro (Moderato)
Adagio
Finale: Presto

Sonata in C, Op. 24
Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826)

Allegro
Adagio
Menuetto: Allegro — Trio: Poco ritenuto
Rondo: Presto

INTERMISSION

10 Danzas Gitanas (Gypsy Dances)
Joaquin Turina (1882-1949)

Foxtrots
George Gershwin (1898-1937)

MS. BUECHNER lives in beautiful Vancouver, Canada, where she is Associate Professor of Piano and Piano Literature at the University of British Columbia. She is in great demand as an adjudicator for important piano competitions and festivals, and presents lectures, workshops and masterclasses worldwide, from the Royal Academy in London to the Juilliard School to the Kobe-Yamate Gakuen in Osaka, Japan.

SARA is a dazzling pianist and witty speaker, with a gregarious personality that leaps from the stage. In informal concerts she will chat delightfully about her cosmopolitan range of interests — from baseball and classic cartoons, to New York art deco architecture and Japanese kabuki — to connect with her audience on an intimate level, and make her music a personal and enchanting experience for everyone.

SARA DAVIS BUECHNER in solo recital, as soloist with orchestra, in collaboration with dance or film… will be an evening of musical enchantment long remembered and treasured by audiences wherever she appears.

A MUSICAL TOUR GUIDE, AT HOME WITH HER AUDIENCE

“In the concert hall, there are still too few Sara Buechners… What differentiates her from so many of her colleagues is the curiosity to explore and share with her listeners so much of the non-standard repertoire” (Toronto Star). “Sara Davis Buechner got up in front of an adoring crowd and slammed her way through Dmitri Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No 1, which is tailor-made for her extrovert temperament. Bouncing on the bench and muggling like a metal guitarist she tore into the keyboard with abandon” (Georgia Straight, Vancouver). “Her conversation among the works was droll and entertaining as well. Being seated beside her at a formal dinner would be an evening’s salvation” (Jamestown Post-Journal). “Buechner is clearly a gifted entertainer, with the qualities of a master performer and a captivating story-teller… Along with her charmingly dry sense of humour, which was to blame for the evenings many bouts of laughter, she brought the audience along with her on a musical adventure” (Brockville Recorder and Times).