As a recitalist, chamber musician and soloist, Sara Davis Buechner has performed across the globe – from renowned venues in North America to concert halls throughout Australia, Europe and Japan. It’s easy to see how.
Music has been a lifelong passion for Buechner, who at 62 has one of the widest musical repertoires of any professional pianist working today. She says she “knew I was going to do this since I was three or four years old – which I think is very common for classical musicians.
“You discover very early that you have a kind of special aptitude for music and if you love it very much, you study it very hard,” she continues, which is what the Baltimore native did. Buechner attended The Juilliard School and made her New York debut in the 1980s to critical acclaim.
The musician quickly aspired to master her craft on the world stage.
“When I was younger I had the desire to try to play everything ever written to the piano,” Buechner says. “It’s pretty impossible because there’s a 500-year repertoire for that instrument. I sort of weaned myself down to things that I love the most.”
The result is an extensive body of work, with more than 100 different piano and orchestra pieces performed to date.
Despite her success on the stage, things changed drastically for Buechner both personally and professionally by the late ’90s. That’s when she transitioned.
“I was always very conflicted about gender most of my younger life and made my transition in my later 30s,” she explains. “I hadn’t really thought about it too much but suddenly occurred to me that I had a life on stage and I was a very visible person. I couldn’t just hide that and suddenly reappear as what many people perceive to be a different person.
“I was thrust into a rather unusual and uncomfortable situation – and the best way to handle that was to be very outspoken and open about it,” she adds. As a result, Buechner lost her job teaching at a conservatory, her manager and most of her concerts.
“Colleagues I had worked with, conductors and other musicians I played chamber music with, just stopped returning calls,” Buechner says. “They didn’t want to be associated with me.”
The pianist soon found refuge in Canada, performing regularly with major orchestras. She became a dual citizen in 2015 and returned to the U.S. a year later, joining the faculty of Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance in Philadelphia.
“My ‘return home’ was accompanied by a keen awareness and appreciation that society has moved in remarkably positive ways toward understanding and the acceptance of transgender people – though we still have a long road ahead,” Buechner’s website reads. “The classical music business likes to pretend that it is gender- and color-blind regarding the concert stage … My own experience tells me otherwise.”
That’s why Buechner has become a vocal advocate for her community. It’s something The Florida Orchestra, the state’s largest professional symphony orchestra based in Tampa Bay, readily celebrates beside her. Buechner will play with TFO Jan. 8 at St. Petersburg’s Mahaffey Theater and Jan. 9 at Clearwater’s Ruth Eckerd Hall, presenting George Gershwin’s “Concerto in F” ahead of Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet.” The American composer is a personal favorite of hers.
“I’ve always loved Gershwin’s music,” she says. “He’s one of our great, wonderful composers who put himself on the map by being able to write music that was not only classical but also had populist elements. He has a very wide-ranging appeal that people can appreciate on many levels.”
TFO notes that Buechner is the perfect pianist to breathe life into the piece.
“Part of The Florida Orchestra’s mission is to connect our audiences with a wide range of guest artists, composers and works of music that reflect our world and the Tampa Bay community,” CEO Mark Cantrell says. “We are excited to have Sara Davis Buechner onstage with us because she is an inspiration for everyone – both through her powerful performances and her empowering story.”
Buechner is grateful for the support. She says LGBTQ representation in the classical musical field “is pretty non-existent” and venues can be hesitant to showcase such an outspoken advocate.
“I don’t think I’ve really had any negative situations at all from the concert stage. When you walk out, bow and sit down at the piano, people want to hear you play the piano well,” she says. “Now if you don’t, well, then you can expect a little blowback.
“If you do your job, I don’t think people are upset,” she continues. “It’s really much more on the business side of things. People who are worried about selling tickets.”
Thankfully she enjoys the support of organizations like TFO and others. In New York, she premiered her one-woman show “Of Pigs and Pianos” in late December to rave reviews from The New York Times.
The piece details her “extraordinary life story in music and words,” consisting of excerpts from her unpublished autobiography. The outlet called the production a “deeply personal statement,” one that Buechner hopes leads to both a tour and her book’s publication.
“What editors think will sell is a sensational story about a sex change – but I guarantee you, mastering the intricacies of Mozart’s piano concertos is far more interesting,” Buechner laughs. “I can say things in words, I can write things in words, but music is the language I speak most fluently.”
Buechner will speak that language at The Florida Orchestra Jan. 8-9. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit FloridaOrchestra.org. Visit SaraDavisBuechner.com to learn more about the artist.
