Sarah Cahill (pianist)

Sarah Cahill (born 1960) is an American pianist based in the Bay Area. She has also worked as a writer on music and as a radio-show host.

Born in Washington, D.C., Sarah Cahill moved to Berkeley, California when her father James Cahill became Professor of Chinese Art History at U. C. Berkeley. She was drawn to music as her father owned an extensive collection of records, including rare recordings of composers and pianists such as Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Bartók, 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 had started performing concertos with several local orchestras. At sixteen she played Bach’s D major Toccata at Sommermusikwochen chamber music festival in Trogen, Switzerland .

Sarah Cahill skipped her final year of high school to join 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.

Sarah Cahill has commissioned, premiered and recorded numerous works for solo piano. Compositions dedicated to her include John Adams’ China Gates, Frederic Rzewski’s Snippets 2, Pauline Oliveros’ Quintuplets Play Pen, and Kyle Gann's Private Dances and On Reading Emerson. She has also premiered works by Lou Harrison, Terry Riley, Evan Ziporyn, Julia Wolfe, Ingram Marshall, Ursula Mamlok, George Lewis, Leo Ornstein and many others.

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