March 21: Pianist Sarah Cahill Performing Music of Lou Harrison in Detroit

Photo of Sarah Cahill by Kristen Wrzesniewski available in high-resolution at www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/sarah-cahill

Pianist Sarah Cahill: Music of Lou Harrison
Presented by Detroit Institute of Arts Friday Night Live! Series

Friday, March 21, 2025 from 7:00-8:30pm
Detroit Institute of the Arts | Rivera Court | 5200 Woodward Ave. | Detroit, MI
More Information

“Pianist Sarah Cahill commands a near godlike status among fans of contemporary classical music.” – NPR Music

Watch Sarah Cahill’s NPR Tiny Desk Concer

Sarah Cahill: www.sarahcahill.com

Detroit, MI – On Friday, March 21, 2025 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, returns for her third performance at the Detroit Institute of the Arts as part of its Friday Night Live! series in DIA’s Rivera Court (5200 Woodward Ave.). The concert is free and open to the public. Cahill presents Lou Harrison: A Celebration, highlighting the pioneering American composer’s groundbreaking contributions to 20th-century music. Known for his exploration of alternative tunings, international influences, and innovative instruments, Harrison’s work comes to life in this performance featuring several of his solo piano works as well as his enchanting Varied Trio performed by Cahill with percussionist Douglas Perkins and violinist Yvonne Lam, and two movements, Stampede and Round, from his otherworldly, gamelan-infused Grand Duo performed with Lam.

Sarah Cahill worked closely with Lou Harrison (1917-2003) during his lifetime and has championed many of his works for piano. In 1997, she was chosen to premiere his Festival Dance for two pianos with Aki Takahashi at the Cooper Union and worked with Harrison in rehearsals. She was also chosen to perform his Dance for Lisa Karon, discovered only a few years ago and not heard since its premiere in 1938, and she performed his Varied Trio, both piano concertos, and a number of solo and chamber works on her 2017 Lou Harrison tour celebrating his centennial year, with concerts in San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Jose, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, New York, Orlando, Miami, Hawaii, Tokyo and Fukuoka in Japan, and more. In fall 2019, Cahill performed Lou Harrison's exuberant Concerto for Piano with Javanese Gamelan in two Berkeley performances and at the ICA Boston. She also performed and recorded the work with Gamelan Galak Tika at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

“It's always exciting to perform Lou Harrison's vibrant music, and this concert covers almost six decades of his extraordinary compositional life. He is a hero to me and so many others, not only for his kindness and radiant spirit, but also for his tireless activism for human rights, LGBTQ rights, and environmentalism. I was very fortunate to know him and work with him. Many of the scores on this concert are unpublished, gathered from him and his friends and colleagues, and from his biographer Bill Alves. I'm especially thrilled to perform with Doug Perkins and Yvonne Lam!

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, Metropolitan Museum, 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 6 to 8pm 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” (The New York Times), returns for her third performance at the Detroit Institute of the Arts as part of its Friday Night Live! series in DIA’s Rivera Court (5200 Woodward Ave.). The concert is free and open to the public. Cahill presents a Lou Harrison: A Celebration, highlighting the pioneering American composer’s groundbreaking contributions to 20th-century music. Known for his exploration of alternative tunings, international influences, and innovative instruments, Harrison’s work comes to life in this performance featuring several of his solo piano works as well as his enchanting Varied Trio performed by Cahill with percussionist Douglas Perkins and violinist Yvonne Lam, and his otherworldly, gamelan-infused Grand Duo performed with Lam.

Concert details:

Who: Pianist Sarah Cahill with percussionist Douglas Perkins and violinist Yvonne Lam
Presented by Detroit Institute of Arts, Friday Night Live! Series
What: Music of Lou Harrison When: Friday, March 21, 2025 from 7:00-8:30pm
Where: Rivera Court, 5200 Woodward Ave., Detroit, MI 48202
Tickets and information: www.dia.org/events/friday-night-live-sarah-cahill-music-lou-harrison