Background
Grew up in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles
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Mildred Chase
Edit ProfileEducation
Studied with Victor Trice, Olga Steeb, and Richard Buhlig. Studied with Josef Lhévinne who considered her his prize pupil. Graduated with a diploma.
Career
Published "Just Being At The Piano" and "Improvisation, Music From The Inside Out". Born in Brooklyn, New York, moved to Los Angeles at two and a half years old. Started playing at the age of three by ear.
She had absolute pitch.
Graduated Roosevelt High School in Los Angeles at 17. Went to the Juilliard School of Music in New York on a fellowship.
Married William Francis Chase and moved back to Los Angeles Played regularly on “Evenings On The Roof” concert series launched by Peter Yeats. Met Meade Lux Lewis, who could not read music, but taught her Boogie-Woogie.
She played Jazz piano at Ciro"s on Sunset Boulevard, Shelly’s Manitoba Hole and elsewhere.
She taught at the University of Southern California Graduate School of Music and the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music. At the latter she assisted Rosina Lhevinne. She was a crusader against the war in Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s, gave concerts for the Women's International Strike for Peace (WISP).
Politically active in protesting Board of Education’s music defunding in Los Angeles schools in 1960s.
Sons, Kenneth and Sanders. Grandsons, Chris and Mike.
Had a not for profit Art Gallery in Idyllwild, California. Gave concerts there and at the Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts (ISOMATA), now known as the Idyllwild Arts Foundation. Played concerts on KPFK radio station.
Specialized in Baroque Music performance.
Played the harpsichord with Sol Babitz, violinist in The Early Music Laboratory Group. Also performed chamber music extensively with Sascha Jacobsen, Bernie Kundell, Joachim Chassman and other noted players. On October 31, 1987, Mildred P. Chase received a letter from the revered composer Witold Lutosławski.
Lutosławski wrote:
"Dear Mission Chase, Warmest thanks for your letter of 29th September and for your words about my music
They are of great value for me, indeed. I am reading your book which is fascinating for me as a man who used to be a pianist and not a bad one.
Many thanks for your thoughts about pianism apparently simple, and yet so original. Of course, I am anxious to read your new book
Best wishes. Yours sincerely, -West Lutosławski"
was published in 1988.
The New York Times said it offers helpful advice but "it skirts the major problem of an art that demands both a free-flying spirit and the heavy weight of discipline".
