Sara Davis Buechner

Pianist Sara Davis Buechner is one of the leading keyboard artists of our time. She has been praised on four continents for her “intelligence, integrity and all-encompassing technical prowess”(New York Times), “fascinating and astounding virtuosity”(Philippine Star), and “thoughtful artistry in the full service of music”(Washington Post).“Buechner has no superior” says Japan’s InTunemagazine. Winner of a bouquet of prizes at the world’s great piano competitions -- Reine Elisabeth of Belgium, Leeds, Salzburg, Sydney and Vienna -- she established her early career with the Gold Medal of the 1984 Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, and a Bronze Medal in the 1986 Tschaikowsky International Piano Competition in Moscow. Now residing in Canada, Ms. Buechner enjoys a vibrant international performance and recording career.

With an active repertoire of over 100 piano concertos ranging from A (Albeníz) to Z (Zimbalist), she has appeared as soloist with the world’s prominent orchestras: New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Saint Louis, San Francisco, Montréal, Vancouver, Victoria; the CBC Radio Orchestra, Japan Philharmonic, City of Birmingham (U.K.) Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Kuopio (Finland) Philharmonic, Slovak Philharmonic and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León (Spain). Audiences throughout the world have applauded Ms. Buechner’s recitals in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, the Hollywood Bowl, Prague’s Dvorák Hall and Kyoto’s Alti Hall; and she enjoys a special following throughout Asia where she tours annually.

Ms. Buechner’s numerous recordings have received prominent critical appraisal. The New York Times greeted her Koch International CD of piano music by Rudolf Friml as a “revelation,” and devoted the front page of its Sunday Arts & Leisure section to her world première recording of the Bach-Busoni “Goldberg” Variations. Her George Gershwin album was selected as a “Record of the Month” byStereophile magazine, and her recording of Hollywood piano concertos by Bernard Herrmann and Franz Waxman won Germany’s Deutsches Schauplatten Preisfor best soundtrack. Current projects include a multi-CD collection of Bach’s keyboard works in the 1919 edition of Ferruccio Busoni, the complete violin-and-piano music of Joaquín Turina, and the first major recording of piano music by American composer Ray Green. Ms. Buechner’s discography includes extensive recording work for the Yamaha Disklavier and PianoSoft systems.

Profiles of Ms. Buechner have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Macleans, Paris Match, Noticias del Argentina, Out, Blade and Frontiers magazines; and she has been featured on the television programs Entertainment Tonight, Extra, and In the Life. Appearances on radio include profiles on NPR’s The Fishko Files and Performance Today, WFMT’s Dame Myra Hess Recital Series, WNYC’s New Sounds with John Schaefer, and CBC’s Westcoast Performance and Richardson’s Roundup; and her recordings receive regular airplay worldwide. Sara Davis Buechner studied piano with some of the most formidable keyboard virtuosos of the Twentieth Century -- Filipino pianist Reynaldo Reyes; Americans Ann Schein, Phillip Evans and Beveridge Webster; Canadian pianist William Aide; Busoni pupils Edward Weiss, Gunnar Johansen and Mieczyslaw Münz; and legendary keyboard masters Byron Janis and Rudolf Firkusny at the Juilliard School. She has inherited, and proudly continues, their pianistic mantle.inherited, and proudly continues, their pianistic mantle.

Ms. Buechner is a former faculty member of New York University and is currently Associate Professor of Piano at the University of British Columbia. She has presented lectures and masterclasses worldwide, notably at the Juilliard School in New York, the Royal Academy in London, Indiana University, Yong Siu Toh Conservatory in Singapore, National Taiwan Normal University, Senzoku Conservatory in Tokyo and the Kobe-Yamate Gakuen in Osaka, Japan. She has also adjudicated important international piano competitionssuch as the Concert Artists Guild of New York, Firkušný Competition in Prague, and Asian Chopin Competition in Japan.

Sara Davis Buechner serves as principal music consultant to Dover Publications, and plays the Yamaha piano exclusively. She is also a proud honorary member of the Hanshin Tigers baseball team of Osaka, Japan.