Violinist Stephanie Chase plays "Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso" by Camille Saint-Saens. With the Philharmonia conducted by Geoffrey Simon.

Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso

Emotionless human who tries to gain and understand emotions through music.

“One of the violin greats of our era” (Newhouse News), Stephanie Chase’s triumphant win at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow has led to an international career with concert performances in twenty-five countries and a prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. As soloist, Ms. Chase has appeared with the world’s most illustrious orchestras, among them the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, London Symphony, American Classical Orchestra, National Symphony (Mexico), Hanover Band, San Francisco Symphony, and Hong Kong Philharmonic, and her playing is widely acclaimed for its "elegance, dexterity, rhythmic vitality and great imagination" (Boston Globe). Conductors with whom she has collaborated include Marin Alsop, Leonard Slatkin, Enrique Diemecke, and Zubin Mehta.

Her appearances in 2013 and 2014 include solos with the symphony orchestras of Long Beach, Monterrey (Mexico), Yucatan, Eastern Connecticut, Seattle Collaborative and the Stanford Philharmonia, plus the Boulder Chamber Orchestra and features on Sirius Radio. She played recitals at the 92nd Street Y in New York and at Bargemusic, Williams College and Dickinson College and was a featured artist in chamber concerts by Music in Context, the Music of the Spheres Society, and the Bronx Arts Ensemble.  In recent seasons her rendition of Elgar's Violin Concerto (with the Louisville Orchestra) was selected as a “Classical Act of the Decade” and her New York recital with pianist Sara Davis Buechner was chosen as one of "20 Concerts to Hear this Fall" by WQXR and a “Critics' Choice” by Musical America.

A specialist in Beethoven’s music, Stephanie Chase made the first recording ever of his Violin Concerto and Romances on period instruments, which features her own cadenzas and 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 also premiered music by composers that include Joan Tower, Earl Kim, Edward Applebaum, Yehudi Wyner, Richard Pearson Thomas, and Taavo Virkhaus.

Born in Illinois to musician parents, Ms. Chase gave her first public perrformance at age two and made her debut with the Chicago Symphony at nine, as the youngest winner ever of the orchestra's Youth Competition. After her Carnegie Hall debut at age eighteen, she became a favorite pupil of the legendary Belgian violinist Arthur Grumiaux and subsequently studied chamber music at the Marlboro Festival.

In addition to her solo appearances, Ms. Chase is a guest of illustrious music festivals worldwide, including Caramoor, Music from Marlboro, Bravo! Vail, Bargemusic, Sommerfest (Minnesota Orchestra), Kuhmo (Finland), and Nuits de Bourgogne, and she has toured internationally and recorded with the Boston Chamber Music Society.

Recordings by Ms. Chase, for Koch International Classics, Cala Records and Harmonia Mundi, have been designated “To Die For” by Stereophile and “Record of the Month” by Classic CD. As a music educator, she gives master classes throughout the United States and teaches violin at New York University’s Steinhardt School. She is also the co-founder and Artistic Director of the Music of the Spheres Society, which is “dedicated to exploring the links between music, philosophy and the sciences” (The New Yorker) and an accomplished music arranger whose string orchestra versions of virtuoso violin music are performed by the Perlman Chamber Orchestra and recorded by The American String Project on MSR Classics.

Stephanie Chase plays a violin made in 1742 by Petrus Guarnerius, which she pairs with a bow by Dominique Peccatte. For additional information about Ms. Chase, please visit her website at www.stephaniechase.com

Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso

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