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Sarah Cahill, piano

Praised by the Village Voice for "her phenomenal technique, her instinctive command of recent aesthetics, and quite possibly the most interesting repertoire of any pianist around," Sarah Cahill will perform music from her ongoing project called A Sweeter Music, for which 18 composers are writing new works envisioning peace. The work's title comes from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Nobel Lecture: "We must see that peace represents a sweeter music, a cosmic melody that is far superior to the discords of war." Video projections are by John Sanborn, who has collaborated with such artists as Bill T. Jones, Van Halen, and Mikhail Baryshnikov.

Program: A Sweeter Music, featuring works by Frederic Rzewski, Yoko Ono, Terry Riley, and The Residents

Program Notes
Program notes are available online. [PDF]

Press
The Contra Costa Times says "Beating swords into plowshares is about as noble an antiwar notion as they come, but Sarah Cahill of Berkeley is taking the Old Testament injunction out of the fields and into the higher realm of music." Read the entire article.

Read the San Francisco Chronicle article on Sarah Cahill's A Sweeter Music.

Video Clips
Several video clips are available on the Sarah Cahill website
Video Program Notes: Sarah Cahill

( Quicktime Player )
Pianist Sarah Cahill plays and talks about the music of Frederic Rzewski, including his arrangement of the anti-war song Down by the Riverside which inspired Cahill's January 25, 2009, concert A Sweeter Music. For the program, she commissioned 18 composers to write new works on the theme of peace. The concert includes a new work by Frederic Rzewski. (Length 6:30)

Education/Community Events
Composer Forum
The Music of Peace: Can Music Be Political?
Fri, Jan. 23, 6-7:30 pm
Wheeler Auditorium
Free and Open to the Public
Sarah Cahill and several of the commissioned composers discuss the intersection of politics and music, especially in works without text, and what it means to write political music. Panelists include Larry Polansky, whose work B'midbar incorporates American Sign Language, a Shaker hymn, and audience participation; New York composer Jerome Kitzke, who uses drumming, whistling, and Walt Whitman's Civil War poems in his contribution; and 17-year-old Berkeleyan Preben Antonsen who composed Dar al-Harb: House of War as a tribute to his cousin who served in Iraq. Award-winning video artist John Sanborn will also speak about his video work for this project. Presented in association with the UC Berkeley Department of Music.