Bravo IV: Exotic, Eclectic & Electric

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Program

Carlos Chavez: Sinfonía índia (Symphony No. 2)

Leonard Bernstein: Serenade for Violin after Plato’s Symposium

1. Phaedrus
2. Aristophanes
3. Eryximachus
4. Agathon
5. Socrates

Stephanie Chase, violin

Intermission

Camille Saint-Saëns: Symphony No. 3 in C minor, op. 78, Organ Symphony

1. Adagio – Allegro moderato – Poco adagio
2. Allegro moderato – Presto – Maestoso – Allegro

"One of the most respected classical violinists in the world," (www.womanaroundtown.com), Stephanie Chase is recognized as “one of the violin greats of our era” (Newhouse Newspapers) and in demand as soloist with eminent orchestras that include the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, and London Symphony Orchestra. Her performances are acclaimed for their "elegance, dexterity, rhythmic vitality and great imagination" (Boston Globe) as well as "stunning power" (Louisville Courier-Journal) and "matchless technique" (BBC Music Magazine).  Of her concert in November, 2009 with the American Classical Orchestra, the New York Times noted that “the fine violinist Stephanie Chase was an elegant soloist.”

Stephanie Chase's playing is characterized by “virtuosity galore” (Gramophone), with “great intensity and a huge tone, the epitome of the modern violinist” (The Baroque Cello Revival, Paul Laird) and she is “renowned for her impeccable intonation” (Temperament, Stuart Isacoff).  In December, 2009 her "sensational" account of Edward Elgar's Violin Concerto with the Louisville Orchestra was deemed a "Classical Act of the Decade."

Her triumphant performances at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow have led to concerts throughout the world and the award of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant.  As soloist, Ms. Chase has performed in twenty-five countries and offers an repertoire of over 50 concertos. She has collaborated with conductors that include Zubin Mehta, Leonard Slatkin, Leon Barzin, Herbert Blomstedt, Frans Brüggen, Marin Alsop, Roy Goodman, Hugh Wolff and Stanislaw Skrowaczewski.  Her discography encompasses major concerti, chamber works, and collections of salon pieces by diverse composers including Beethoven, Mozart, Saint-Saëns, Ravel, Friml, Schoenberg, and Kapralova, and she has premiered music by composers that include Earl Kim, Edward Applebaum, Eleanor Hovda, Joan Tower, Yehudi Wyner and Taavo Virkhaus.

Ms. Chase is also a specialist in period instrument practice and actively performs on both types of violins.  Her recording of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto and Romances, the first ever on period instruments, has been declared “one of the twenty most outstanding performances in the work’s recording history” (Beethoven: Violin Concerto, Cambridge University Press) and honored with the highest possible ratings by BBC Music Magazine and Classic CD. She has composed her own cadenzas for Beethoven’s Concerto as well as for concerti by Haydn and Mozart.

Born in Illinois, Stephanie Chase is the daughter of two musicians, the noted arranger and composer Bruce Chase and violinist Fannie (Paschell) Chase.  She gave her first public performance at age two and was recognized as a child prodigy, making her debut with the Chicago Symphony at nine as the youngest winner ever of the orchestra's Youth Competition. She studied first with her mother and at age seven embarked on studies with Sally Thomas, then an assistant to Ivan Galamian at The Juilliard School. While still in her teens she moved to Belgium to study privately with Arthur Grumiaux, who is noted as "holding her in regard for her energy and the way in which she put into practice what he taught...(and) she remained one of his preferred pupils" (Mon ami Arthur Grumiaux - Souvenirs inachevés, Dom Adrien Nocent).  Following her return to the United States, Ms. Chase attended the Marlboro Festival in Vermont in the early 1980's, where she was coached in chamber music by musicians that included Rudolf Serkin, Rudolf Firkusny, Felix Galimir, Samuel Rhodes, Marcel Moyse and David Soyer.

Stephanie Chase has been profiled in numerous newspapers and journals, most recently in Woman Around Town (November 15, 2009) and The Epoch Times (October 14, 2009).

In addition to her solo and chamber music appearances (which include Caramoor, Music from Marlboro, Bravo! Vail and The American String Project), Ms. Chase gives master classes throughout the United States and teaches violin at New York University’s Steinhardt School. She is a co-founder and Artistic Director of the Music of the Spheres Society.  Formerly, she taught violin at MIT and the Boston Conservatory.

Among Ms. Chase’s hobbies is making arrangements of virtuoso violin music for string orchestra, which have been performed and recorded for MSR Classics by The American String Project, performed by The Perlman Chamber Orchestra in venues that include Carnegie Hall, and featured on concerts by the Music of the Spheres Society.  Her other hobbies include researching her genealogy, studying the “music of the spheres” and strength training.  She is married to the noted organologist Stewart Pollens and is the proud aunt of two remarkably talented actors, Matt and Becki Newton.

Stephanie Chase has recorded for Koch International Classics, Harmonia Mundi and Cala Records, and plays a violin made by Petrus Guarnerius in Venice in 1742.