Sara Davis Buechner Spent a Lifetime Mastering Classical Music — and Refusing to Disappear

The celebrated trans pianist brings her story to the Gilmore International Piano Festival in Kalamazoo

Sarab — Sara Davis Buechner. Courtesy photo

Kelli Dunham

Published: April 21, 2026 | Last Updated: April 28, 2026

For many people — especially queer and trans folks — classical music can feel like a closed world: formal, intimidating, full of rules. Not meant for us.

As the highest-level classical pianist to ever transition mid-career, internationally celebrated musician Sara Davis Buechner understands what it means to feel excluded. But she also knows how to dismantle those walls with a unique combination of hard work, talent and simple stubborn refusal to go away.

In her multimedia performance "Of Pigs and Pianos," set for May 9 at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo as part of the Irving S. Gilmore International Piano Festival, Buechner will blend virtuosic piano with personal storytelling, tracing a life shaped by discipline, isolation and, ultimately, self-recognition. The show moves from her childhood to Juilliard to concert halls around the world, and through the long, often confusing process of understanding herself as a trans woman in classical music, when there were few visible examples.

Now she's bringing that story to audiences who may never have felt invited into a concert hall. We spoke about identity, survival and what it means to stand onstage, fully visible.

You've described knowing who you were from a very young age. What was it like carrying that before you had language for it?

I knew who I was from age 3 or 4. But since there were no references to this anywhere, I was very confused. When I went off to college at age 16, 17, at Juilliard, I met people who were open and out. But they didn't seem quite my people either.

I buried myself in my work. People remember me in my late teens and early 20s as the goddamn hardest worker in Juilliard. I showed up every day at eight in the morning. I didn't leave till 10:30 at night. I practiced 10, 11, 12 hours a day until I got bleeding ulcers at age 18, and I nearly died.

How much can you stuff yourself in the closet and still breathe? And even then, I didn't know what kind of closet I was burying myself into.

When did things start to shift?

It wasn't until the dawn of the internet age in the 1990s. I got my first computer and discovered an AOL chat room. You've got trans. That was an eye-opener, a door-opener, a personal opener to me. Somewhere in my early and mid-30s, I started to say, well, if I'm this person who looks fabulous in taffeta, why not? Who am I hurting by being myself? That's a very important line for anybody to repeat as a mantra.

Living openly as a trans woman came with consequences, both in the classical music world and personally. What did that look like?

I was amazed by how many so-called friends and acquaintances I lost. They liked the person with the mask on. I remember sitting at a meeting in my suit and tie, looking around at the moroseness. And I thought, I'm about to take my suit of armor off, and these people are going to go through their whole lives with it on. It's so sad and it makes no goddamn sense, this kind of rejection of the incredible, beautiful variety of human beings.

Some of the show is very vulnerable, especially your experiences with therapists. What made you decide to include those specific interactions?

That's probably my favorite part of the show! I sit in the therapist's chair and subject the therapists to what I was subjected to — people who really didn't understand, but were paid to understand. Those therapists were so clueless. They did not know what the fuck they were talking about.

You spend time with young trans people across the country. What are you hearing from them?

They can't get their meds. They're being vilified. Their parents don't understand. They have so many hardships. They get the severe message that you are not lovable as you are. So change or die. It's a horrifying message.

When people ask me for assistance, I always give them my email, but what they need is the support and understanding of a good medical community and a good local LGBTQ+ community. We need a sense of connectivity and community. A lot of LGBT folks live lives in isolated terror.

Sara Davis Buechner. Courtesy photo

The show combines storytelling and music. What can audiences expect?

It's basically all biographical. I talk about my childhood, coming to grips with being trans and along the way it's illustrated with music that tells the same story in an artistic way. So it's a very fun and engaging way for people. They're going to learn a lot, but they're also going to be entertained and a little dazzled.

For me, classical music has always been fun and enlivening. I think it's really sad that people with money ruin everything — they ruin classical music, they make it this solemn sort of thing. So the show is a great intro to classical music for people who don't really know what it is. And for people who already support classical music, they can learn a lot about what it means to be trans, who trans people are.

What do you hope people take away from "Of Pigs and Pianos"?

How important it is that we all have something to contribute to the world. Try to imagine the world with twice as many actors, dancers, musicians, storytellers, sidewalk artists. Wouldn't it be great?

Purchase tickets for "Of Pigs and Pianos" here: thegilmore.org/event/sara-davis-buechner-may-9.