April 26: Pianist Sarah Cahill Performs Music by Women Composers from Around the Globe in The Future is Female – Presented by Detroit Institute of Arts Friday Night Live! Series
Photo of Sarah Cahill by Miranda Sanborn available in high-resolution at www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/sarah-cahill
Pianist Sarah Cahill Performs Music by Women Composers
from Around the Globe in The Future is Female
Presented by Detroit Institute of Arts Friday Night Live! Series
Friday, April 26, 2024 from 7:00-8:30pm
Detroit Institute of the Arts | Rivera Court | 5200 Woodward Ave. | Detroit, MI
“a series distinctive for its finesse and conviction”
– Gramophone Magazine on The Future is Female
Watch Sarah Cahill’s NPR Tiny Desk Concert
Detroit, MI – On Friday, April 26, 2024 from 7:00-8:30pm, Sarah Cahill, described as “a sterling pianist and an intrepid illuminator of the classical avant-garde” by The New York Times, will perform music from her ongoing project The Future is Female in a free concert presented by the Detroit Institute of the Arts as part of its Friday Night Live! series in DIA’s Rivera Court (5200 Woodward Ave.). The Future is Female is Cahill’s exploration of music for solo piano by women composers from the Baroque to the present day, which now includes more than 70 pieces from around the globe, some commissioned by Cahill as part of the project. This is her second time bringing music from The Future is Female to Detroit – she last performed a different selection of works at DIA in March 2019.
For this concert, Cahill will perform music for solo piano by women composers spanning from 1687 to 2020, encompassing the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern periods. Her program includes selections from Keyboard Suite in D minor (1687) by Élisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre, Piano Poems (2020) by Regina Harris Baiocchi, “Le murmure des blés” from Au sein de la nature (1908) by Leokadiya Kashperova, Music for Piano (1989/1997) by Franghiz Ali-Zadeh, Two Etudes, Op. 26 (1839) by Louise Farrenc; A Mother’s Sacrifice (1908) by Viola Kinney, Sonata No. 9, Op. 5 No. 3 (1811) by Hélène de Montgeroult, Valse Choro No. 2 (1965) by Adelaide Pereira da Silva, Hermit Thrush at Eve, Op. 92 No. 1 (1921) by Amy Beach, Troubled Water (1967) by Margaret Bonds, Rang de Basant (2012) by Reena Esmail, and Nocturne in B-flat Major (1819) by Maria Szymanowska.
Since her last visit to Detroit, Sarah Cahill has been featured performing music from The Future is Female in an NPR Tiny Desk concert as well as in eight-hour marathon performances at the Barbican Centre in London and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, both celebrating International Women’s Day. She has also brought the project to venues across the U.S. including Carolina Performing Arts in Chapel Hill, NC; Carlsbad Music Festival in San Diego, CA; the University of Iowa; Bowling Green New Music Festival in Ohio; Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive; North Dakota Museum of Art; the EXTENSITY Concert Series’ Women Now Festival in New York; the Newport Classical Music Festival in Rhode Island, and more.
In addition, Cahill recorded 30 works from The Future is Female on a three-volume set of albums released in 2022 and 2023 on the First Hand Records label, which included many world premiere recordings and was widely acclaimed by publications including in the Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, BBC Music Magazine, International Piano, The Wire, Gramophone Magazine, and more. BBC Music Magazine reported, “the American pianist [Sarah Cahill] takes us on a chronological journey that zips around the world, stitching together contrasting styles into an enjoyable musical patchwork,” while New Music Buff notes the “impressive command of baroque, classical, romantic, and modern idioms” that Cahill brings to these recordings.
Listen to The Future is Female, Vols. 1-3 (First Hand Records):
Vol. 1: https://lnkfi.re/CahillFutureisFemaleVol1
Vol. 2: https://lnkfi.re/CahillFutureisFemaleVol2
Vol. 3: https://lnkfi.re/CahillFutureisFemaleVol3
Sarah Cahill began working on The Future is Female in 2018. She says:
“For decades I had been working with many living American composers, including Pauline Oliveros, Tania León, Eve Beglarian, Mary D. Watkins, Julia Wolfe, Ursula Mamlok, Meredith Monk, Annea Lockwood, and many more, but I felt an urgent need to explore neglected composers from the past, and from around the globe. Like most pianists, I grew up with the classical canon, which has always excluded women composers as well as composers of color. It is still standard practice to perform recitals consisting entirely of music written by men. The Future is Female, then, aims to be a corrective towards rebalancing the repertoire. It does not attempt to be exhaustive . . . The possibilities are, in fact, limitless.”
More about Sarah Cahill: Sarah Cahill, hailed as “a sterling pianist and an intrepid illuminator of the classical avant-garde” by The New York Times, has commissioned and premiered over seventy compositions for solo piano. Composers who have dedicated works to Cahill include John Adams, Terry Riley, Frederic Rzewski, Pauline Oliveros, Julia Wolfe, Roscoe Mitchell, Annea Lockwood, and Ingram Marshall. She was named a 2018 Champion of New Music, awarded by the American Composers Forum (ACF).
Cahill’s latest project is The Future is Female, an investigation and reframing of the piano literature featuring more than seventy compositions by women around the globe, from the Baroque to the present day, including new commissioned works. Recent and upcoming performances of The Future is Female include concerts at The Barbican, Carolina Performing Arts, National Gallery of Art, Carlsbad Music Festival, Detroit Institute of Arts, University of Iowa, Bowling Green New Music Festival, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, North Dakota Museum of Art, Mayville State University, the EXTENSITY Concert Series’ Women Now Festival in New York, and the Newport Classical Music Festival. Cahill also performed music from The Future is Female for NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Concert series.
Sarah Cahill’s discography includes more than twenty albums on the New Albion, CRI, New World, Tzadik, Albany, Innova, Cold Blue, Other Minds, Irritable Hedgehog, and Pinna labels. Her three-album series, The Future is Female, was released on First Hand Records between March 2022 and April 2023. These albums encompass 30 compositions by women from around the globe, from the 17th century to the present day, and include many world premiere recordings.
Cahill’s radio show, Revolutions Per Minute, can be heard every Sunday evening from 8 to 10 pm on KALW, 91.7 FM in San Francisco. She is on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory and is a regular pre-concert speaker with the San Francisco Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
For more information, visit www.sarahcahill.com.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: Pianist Sarah Cahill, described as “a sterling pianist and an intrepid illuminator of the classical avant-garde” by The New York Times, will perform music from her ongoing project The Future is Female in a free concert presented by the Detroit Institute of the Arts as part of its Friday Night Live! Series. The Future is Female is Cahill’s exploration of music for solo piano by women composers from the Baroque to the present day, which includes more than 70 pieces from around the globe, some commissioned by or for Cahill as part of the project. Cahill will perform works by Élisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre, Regina Harris Baiocchi, Leokadiya Kashperova, Franghiz Ali-Zadeh, Louise Farrenc, Viola Kinney, Hélène de Montgeroult, Adelaide Pereira da Silva, Amy Beach, Margaret Bonds, Reena Esmail, and Maria Szymanowska.
Short description: Pianist Sarah Cahill, “a sterling pianist and an intrepid illuminator of the classical avant-garde” (The New York Times), will perform music from her ongoing project The Future is Female in a free concert presented by the Detroit Institute of the Arts as part of its Friday Night Live! Series. The Future is Female is Cahill’s exploration of music for solo piano by women composers from the Baroque to the present day, which includes more than 70 pieces from around the globe. This concert will include music by Élisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre; Regina Harris Baiocchi, Leokadiya Kashperova, Franghiz Ali-Zadeh, Louise Farrenc, Viola Kinney, Hélène de Montgeroult, Adelaide Pereira da Silva, Amy Beach, Margaret Bonds, Reena Esmail, and Maria Szymanowska.
Concert details:
Who: Pianist Sarah Cahill
Presented by Detroit Institute of Arts, Friday Night Live! Series
What: Music by Élisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre, Regina Harris Baiocchi, Leokadiya Kashperova, Franghiz Ali-Zadeh, Louise Farrenc, Viola Kinney, Hélène de Montgeroult, Adelaide Pereira da Silva, Amy Beach, Margaret Bonds, Reena Esmail, and Maria Szymanowska.
When: Friday, April 26, 2024 from 7:00-8:30pm
Where: Rivera Court, 5200 Woodward Ave., Detroit, MI 48202
Tickets and information: www.dia.org/events/saturday-night-live-sarah-cahill-future-female