Background
Born into a musical and academic family in Washington, D.C., at the age of five Sarah Cahill moved to California when her father, James Cahill became Professor of Chinese Art History at U. C. Berkeley. Her father owned an extensive collection of records, including rare historical recordings of composers and pianists such as Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Bartok, Artur Schnabel, Walter Gieseking and Clara Haskil. Cahill began her formal piano studies at the age of six, and at seven she began studying with Sharon Mann. By twelve she was performing concertos with several local orchestras. At sixteen she was invited to Sommermusikwochen, a chamber music festival in Trogen, Switzerland where she played Bach’s D major Toccata. Skipping her final year of high school she went directly to the San Francisco Conservatory where Adams composed China Gates for her. She finished her academic studies at the University of Michigan where she continued her musical training with Theodore Lettvin.
Cahill has written music reviews for Gramophone Explorations, Historical Performance, ClassicsToday.com, Grove’s Dictionary and other international publications, and liner notes for recordings by John Adams, Terry Riley, and others. In 1985 she became the music critic for the East Bay Express and has been published in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Village Voice Literary Supplement, and others.
Read more about this topic: Sarah Cahill (pianist)
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