Blog by Sr. Luisa Derouen, OP[/caption]
From the time she was four years old Sara knew that music was at the core of her being, particularly Mozart’s Symphonies. She also knew by age four that she was not a boy but a girl and her name was Sara. But she learned very quickly, as most transgender children do, to keep that information to herself.
By the time Sara was 37 years old, she was an international concert pianist and playing with top tier orchestras in the U.S. and abroad. But her international fans knew her only as David Buechner. The inner struggle that began in early childhood never left her and eventually led to alcoholism, drugs and many suicide attempts. On Nov. 27th, 1996, she clearly heard God ask her, “Do you want to go there?” “Yes, God, I need to go there to survive. I need to make the journey across the gender divide.” She needed to finally be Sara and not David.
In the two and a half years that followed, she transitioned. She made her First Communion and became an active member of St. Philip Neri Catholic Church. She also totally lost her career and was reduced to teaching piano lessons to children.
But in the process she gained herself, and over the last two decades, she is again giving concerts to rave reviews internationally. She is an Associate Professor at Temple University in Philadelphia. She and I have been friends since 2007. She loves to say that when she is playing that’s her face time with God. Transgender people don’t choose to be transgender. They discover it, and most often very young.
Is Sara’s music less beautiful because she now plays as a woman or is it more beautiful and authentic because she plays as her true self?
Give yourself a treat. Go to her website and enjoy some of her music! http://saradavisbuechner.com/ 