Meet Stephanie Chase
Music, Nature, Science and Philosophy are Inextricably Linked
Stephanie Chase is internationally recognized as “one of the violin greats of our era” (Newhouse Newspapers) through solo appearances with over 170 orchestras that include the New York and Hong Kong Philharmonics and the Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta and London Symphony Orchestras. Her interpretations are acclaimed for their "elegance, dexterity, rhythmic vitality and great imagination" (Boston Globe), "stunning power" (Louisville Courier-Journal), "matchless technique" (BBC Music Magazine), and “virtuosity galore” (Gramophone). Her performances have been selected as a “Classical Act of the Decade” (Courier-Journal, Louisville), one of "20 Concerts to Hear this Fall" (WQXR) and “Critics' Choice” (Musical America).
A top medalist of the prestigious VII International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, Ms. Chase has performed concerts in twenty-five countries throughout the world and is a recipient of the esteemed Avery Fisher Career Grant.
Stephanie Chase
Equally at home in the virtuoso's repertoire, historically informed performance practice and contemporary music, Ms. Chase offers a diverse repertoire of over 60 concertos and large works for violin and orchestra. Her recordings include Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, which 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.”
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Born in Illinois, Stephanie Chase’s early violin teachers were her mother and Sally Thomas, and she was renowned as a child prodigy through concert performances starting at age two. She made her debut with the Chicago Symphony at eight and began extensive national concert touring while in her early teens. Following her Carnegie Hall debut at eighteen, she studied violin privately with Arthur Grumiaux in Belgium and chamber music at the famed Marlboro Festival in Vermont.
Ms. Chase is a favorite guest of chamber music festivals such as the Newport Music Festival, Bravo! Vail, Bargemusic, and Vietnam Connections. She is a co-founder of the Music of the Spheres Society, an organization founded in 2001 that is devoted to exploring the links between music, science, and philosophy.
Stephanie Chase has been a regular contributing writer to Stay Thirsty, an online arts magazine, and has published articles in Strings Magazine. She is married to Stewart Pollens, the former Conservator of Musical Instruments at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1976-2006) and the author of many books on musical instruments that include The Violin Forms of Antonio Stradivarius (Biddulph Publishing) and Stradivari (Cambridge University Press).
World-renowned violinist and educator
Author of The Stradivarius Code