Pianist Virginia Eskin of Jaffrey and Keene will present “The Musical Willa Cather” Sept. 14 at 7:30 p.m., at Bass Hall in The Monadnock Center for History & Culture at 19 Grove St. in Peterborough.

Eskin describes the concert as a “tableau vivant” of Cather’s work. The evening will include performance of musical works referenced in some of Cather’s most famous works, including “My Antonía,” “Alexander’s Bridge,” “Lucy Gayheart” and “The Troll Garden.”

“There has been a huge resurgence of interest in Cather’s work the past few years, with people looking at the canon of women artists more closely. Cather spoke to the immigrant experience, of what people gave up to come here – their homes and families, but also their art and music,” Eskin said. “Cather knew how music could comfort people in a strange place.” 

Eskin, 83, is a lifelong concert pianist, teacher and lecturer who has spent her career traveling the country and the world performing and teaching. A specialist in women composers, Eskin and husband, Joseph Steinfield, purchased a home in Jaffrey in 1986 and have lived in Keene since 2014.

After coming to Jaffrey, Eskin learned that the town was the longtime summer home of novelist Willa Cather, and that Cather’s grave in Jaffrey draws fans from around the world. Cather, who spent nearly every summer from 1917 to 1940 at the former Shattuck Inn, wrote that Jaffrey was “where I have done my best work.” 

As a musician, Eskin became fascinated with the references to music throughout Cather’s work.

“Most writers will drop a musical reference into a scene but it is often not correct; they will mention a composer’s sonata, when they never wrote a sonata. It’s just kind of a throwaway setting the scene, and when you read that as a musician, it’s a little irritating, ” Eskin said. “I had never experienced such perfect music references in literature before. I realized, when I read Cather’s work, that the references to music with which she perfumes her pages are always perfect, and they are always accurate.” 

Eskin became curious as to how Cather knew so much about music and began to research Cather’s life. She learned that after Cather left her home in Nebraska to become a magazine writer in New York City, she lived in a boarding house with several young women musicians.

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“Cather lived with these passionate young women. She would hear them rehearsing; she would hear them talking about their professors always needing more emotion in their work. She learned about music and the drama of music,” Eskin said. “Cather did not play an instrument herself; so she learned about music by eavesdropping and, of course, attending concerts.” 

Eskin gives the example of the powerful role of music in the novel “Lucy Gayheart,” in which a young woman living in 1909 aspires to leave her small town to become a singer, but fails and returns home . The novel refers to the Schubert work “Gefrorne Tranen” (“Frozen Tears”), setting the scene for Gayheart’s death after falling through a frozen river.

Eskin first became involved in performing the music in Cather’s work in 2018, when she filled in last-minute at a Jaffrey concert celebrating Cather’s life.

“The pianist quit a few hours before the concert, so I filled in, and just read the music,” Eskin recalled. 

Eskin has devoted much of her career to studying overlooked female artists, particularly composers. She is the co-producer, with John Gfoerer, of the documentary film “Composer: Amy Beach,” which has been broadcast on PBS and was syndicated to 147 public television stations nationwide. Beach, who was born in Henniker in 1869, performed as a piano soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra when she was just 16 years old and is considered one the most-influential American female composers.  

Eskin noted that Cather’s “life with her partner Edith (Lewis) was hidden, but it was right there in plain sight. Edith is even buried right next to Cather here in Jaffrey, with a much smaller grave – she was always kind of overlooked,” Eskin said. “There is an enormous reinterpretation and reevaluation of Cather’s work now, and there are other people studying the role of music in her work; it’s not just me.” 

Eskin said  Cather found deep inspiration in the isolation and vistas in Jaffrey

“It’s very different from where Cather grew up, out in the open Nebraska plain, which is a view that can be very bleak. Here, she would take a tent and camp out on the Shattuck land, by herself, just to appreciate the beauty of the woods and the mountain,” Eskin says. “She wrote ‘My Antonia’ right here in Jaffrey.” 

For information about “The Musical Willa Cather” or to purchase tickets, go to monadnockcenter.org/events/category/music-in-bass-hall/list.