GREETINGS FROM SARA DAVIS BUECHNER

Welcome and thank you very much for visiting my official website. Here you can find the information you wish about my work to date, upcoming concerts, recordings, future projects, performance possibilities, contact information, and much more. Please write in. It's always a pleasure to meet new friends and music fans, and I love hearing from you!

SARA DAVIS BUECHNER is a classical concert pianist whose performances and recordings have garnered acclaim on four continents. Career highlights include winning prizes in many of the world's most prestigious competitions, appearing with prominent orchestras world-wide, and an extensive list of recordings on major CD labels, MP-files, and Yamaha software systems.

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 who can perform original scores to silent movies, like "Ben Hur" (150 minutes non-stop!) at New York's Lincoln Center.

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.

PIANIST SARA DAVIS BUECHNER IS IN VERY GOOD COMPANY

"Buechner's performance... with its soft contours and liquid, legato phrasing... had a beauty that might have taken even Mozart's breath away"  (The Washington Post). "There can be no doubt of her understanding and knowledge of Mozart's music and his very complex personality.  He would have been very appreciative..." (Montreal Gazette). " Buechner's brilliant performance was a reading that Rachmaninoff himself would have relished" (Milwaukee Journal). "There was old-fashioned grandeur in Buechner's performance, a sweep that pianists like Rudolf Serkin used to summon" (Albany Times - Union). "Buechner walked confidently in her teacher's footstep's, and in the bravura passages set a pace Rudolf Firkusny would have found difficult to match... tossing off some of the [Goldberg] Variations at tempi that might have arched the eyebrows of Glenn Gould and dramatizing others with a subjective freedom that made Gould's metric regularity resemble a corset" (William Littler, Toronto Star).

WHAT YOU WILL HEAR WHEN SARA DAVIS BUECHNER PLAYS THE PIANO

"A virtuoso recital in the grand tradition" (William Littler, Toronto Star)   "Not to be missed" (Terry Teachout, New York Daily News)

Sara Davis Buechner "kept the audience spellbound... From the moment of stepping onstage, Ms. Buechner had the listener's complete attention" (Montreal Gazette). "From the delicate opening chord, played oh-so-quietly with head down and body bent over the keyboard, she drew her audience in with a style that epitomized classical good taste" (Kitchener Record). "We hear an uncommon sublety of phrasing, unforced tone, refined pedaling, and goal-oriented sensibility that renders every structure intelligible. What's more, she finds the subtext of everything she plays, giving way to a work's caprice or passion, tenderness or gentility" (American Record Guide). "Buechner thundered from start to finish... She dazzled with her fiery command of the keyboard... Her tremendous power in the chordal passages, her digital flexibility in the fleet runs... What fascinating and astounding virtuosity!" (Philippine Star). "The audience was wholly captivated by her performance, which combined an unbelievable technical virtuosity, musical sensibility and personal dynamism" (Kobe Shimbun, Japan). "Buechner's charismatic, commited performance earned her an instant standing ovation -- well-deserved considering the quality of her playing"  (Calgary Herald).

A MUSICIAN OF STATURE, COMMAND AND AUTHORITY

"With sure rhythmic sensibility, excellent phrasing and commanding technique" (El Norte de Castilla, Valladolid, Spain), "Buechner rose to every demand, delineating each inner voice with penetration, bringing each climax to a full boil, never daunted by technical challenges." "Buechner is a musician of stature" (Greenwich Times). "Buechner obviously has feelings about this music and she conveyed them with deft, immaculate fingering and musicality.  There is inner excitment in the score and Buechner delivered it tastefully and with authority" (Albany Daily Gazette).

A MUSICIAN OF INTEGRITY

"Buechner has it all... intelligence, integrity and all-encompassing technical prowess" (Tim Page, The New York Times)

"A pianist of exceptional merit, a musician of evident integrity, with an all-encompassing technique and natural sense of the composer's propulsive style....the pianisim never less than 100% committed and breathtaking" (Pianoforte Magazine, England). "What strikes you immediately about the pianist Sara Davis Buechner is the honesty and integrity of her playing" (Washington Post).  "There is no struggle in Ms. Buechner's supple, articulate and nuanced performances... I can't imagine this music played with more integrity and affection" (Anthony Tommasini, New York Times).

A MUSICIAN OF TASTE AND INTELLIGENCE

"Buechner is the pianist, but the score is the star...This artist becomes the picture of self-effacing restraint, putting thoughtful artistry in the full service of the music.....unceasing drive and intelligence" (Washington Post). "What stands out is not only technique, but intelligence... When it comes to clarity, flawless tempo selection, phrasing and precise control of timbre, Buechner has no superior" (In Tune Magazine, Japan).

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).

See the Reviews page to read

rave article about Sara's New CD and other recent reviews too!!!