Stephanie Chase
is "one of the violin
greats of our era" (Newhouse Newspapers)
and among the most accomplished and distinguished American musicians
before the public today. Her performances as guest soloist with the world’s
most eminent orchestras - including the New York Philharmonic, Chicago
Symphony, and London Symphony Orchestra - are acclaimed for their “elegance,
dexterity, rhythmic vitality and great imagination”
(Boston Globe), in cultural capitols such as London, Vienna,
Chicago, Milan,
San Francisco, Hong Kong and New York.
Born in Illinois to one of America's oldest and most prominent
families, Stephanie Chase's
first violin teacher was her mother,
Fannie Chase, and her father, (Robert) Bruce Chase, was a noted music
arranger and composer as well as a violinist. At age two she was already
performing in public, and made her debut with the Chicago Symphony six
years later as the youngest winner ever of the orchestra’s Youth
Competition. She commenced studies in New York with Sally Thomas of The
Juilliard School and within a few years embarked on extensive national
tours as a soloist and recitalist, making her Carnegie Hall debut as soloist with the
National Orchestral Association at age eighteen. Shortly thereafter she
became a pupil of the legendary Belgian violinist Arthur Grumiaux, which
was followed by summer chamber music studies at the famed Marlboro
Festival in Vermont with many of the late-20th century’s most prominent
musicians.
Ms. Chase’s triumphant,
award-winning performances at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow have led to concert
performances in twenty-five countries throughout the United States, Canada, South America, Europe and
Asia, and she was a featured soloist with the Hong Kong
Philharmonic on its first trip ever to the People's Republic of China in
1986,
an historic event that garnered worldwide attention. The following year,
she added the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant to her list of
awards.
Her recording of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto (on
Cala Records) is “one of the twenty most outstanding performances in
the work's recorded history” (Beethoven: Violin Concerto;
Cambridge University Press) and honored with the highest possible
ratings by BBC Music Magazine and Classic CD, including
“Record of the Month.” Other recordings by Ms. Chase have been
selected by Stereophile as a “Record to Die For” and by
Gramophone for its “Hot List,” and include three world premieres.
Ms. Chase’s most recent recordings include an album of
music for violin and piano by the Bohemian-American composer Rudolf
Friml (Koch International Classics) and an album of virtuoso music for
violin and guitar by the early-19th century Italian composer Mauro
Giuliani, performed on historically-appropriate instruments. In October 2008 she will
record Family Portraits – a collection of violin favorites from
the libraries of her violinist parents and grandfathers – for Koch International
Classics, in partnership with famed collaborative pianist Warren Jones.
Profiles of Ms. Chase have appeared in newspapers
throughout the world and in such music journals as The Strad and
Musical America, and her numerous television appearances include
interviews for CBS "Morning News" and by Sir David Frost.
Stephanie Chase plays an impressively diverse solo repertoire that
encompasses Bach and Vivaldi to Bernstein and Zwilich and includes over
sixty concerti and major works for violin and orchestra. She has
given the world premieres of numerous contemporary works, including
those of Earl Kim, Edward Applebaum, Taavo Virkhaus, and Jorge Liderman.
Also renowned as a
chamber musician, Ms. Chase is a co-founder and Artistic Director
of the Music of the Spheres Society, which presents chamber music
concerts and lectures that explore the links between music, philosophy
and the sciences. As a former artist member of the Boston Chamber Music
Society, she toured internationally with the group and is featured on
several recordings made by the Society, in a variety of repertoire.
Ms. Chase is
additionally
applauded through her concert performances in the dual roles of violin
soloist and conductor. Concerts she has conducted with the Jupiter
Symphony, The Chamber Orchestra of the Spheres, and the Symphony By
The Sea (MA) have been extremely well received, and she has led
performances from the solo violin position with orchestras
throughout the United States and Mexico.
Her music arrangements
have been performed to rave reviews in venues that include Carnegie Hall. A Fantasy about Carmen, a work she created for
string orchestra (inspired by Sarasate’s virtuoso Carmen
Fantasy for violin and orchestra), was premiered in 2005 in Zankel
Hall (Carnegie Hall) in a performance by the orchestra of the Perlman
Music Program conducted by Itzhak Perlman. Her Spanish Suite, an
arrangement for string orchestra of additional music by Sarasate, was
premiered in 2006 by The American String Project in Seattle and received
enthusiastic reviews from the audience, critics, and performing
musicians alike. This live-concert recording is now commercially
available on the MSR label. Her arrangement for string orchestra of
Paganini's 24th Caprice, entitled "A Capricious CHASE," will
premiere in Seattle in May 2008. In addition to Paganini's music,
Ms. Chase has inserted the musical spelling of her own name
(C-H-A-S-E) into the work, in the tradition of J. S. Bach.
During the 2007-2008
season, Stephanie Chase programmed and led a "Music and Imagination" course at the Philoctetes Center in New York, an institution that was founded for the
study of imagination. Her programs have included "The Rhythmic Brain"
(with music therapist Eric Barnhill, founder of "Cognitive Eurythmics"),
"Five Centuries of Violin Making" with Stewart Pollens, and "Reaching
Consensus in the Emerson String Quartet" with violinist Philip Setzer.
These programs were streamed live internationally through the Center's
website and are available for viewing on YouTube.
Stephanie Chase is lineally descended (tenth generation)
from Aquila Chase, who arrived from England about 1639 and settled first
in Hampton, NH and then Newbury, MA. The founder of one of New England's
most important family lineages, Aquila's other descendents include
jurists, founders of colleges, bishops, senators and a Supreme Court
judge.
Ms. Chase counts
among her ancestors Salmon Portland Chase, who served as
governor of Ohio, Secretary of the Treasury under Abraham
Lincoln and, later, as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
Among his accomplishments were creating a national banking
system with paper (flat) currency, and he was instrumental in
having the phrase "In God We Trust" placed on American currency. Chase was a noted supporter
of women's rights, the abolition of slavery, and prison reform,
and it is in his honor that the Chase
National Bank (later Chase Manhattan Bank) was named. As Chief
Justice, Salmon Chase presided over the impeachment trial of
President Andrew Johnson in 1868.
Stephanie Chase has
taught violin at MIT and the Boston Conservatory, and gives
master classes at prominent music conservatories throughout the
United States that include The Juilliard School, Mannes, the
Shepherd School at Rice University, the University of Texas at
Austin, and the San Francisco Conservatory. She is currently a
Professor of Violin at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education,
and Human Development at New York University and is on the faculty
of Queens College.
Stephanie Chase's
current hobbies include studying the "music of the spheres" and
Stradivari violins, and researching her genealogy.
Further information about Stephanie
Chase may be obtained by contacting Drew
Hemenger at Michal Schmidt Artists International, Inc..
