Claire Chase (born 1978) is a soloist, collaborative artist, curator and advocate for new and experimental music. Chase has won the Avery Fisher Prize, which recognizes musical excellence, vision, and leadership. In 2012, Chase was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship—the so-called "genius" award.

Early life and education

Chase was born in 1978 and grew up in Leucadia, California. She made her solo debut with the

San Diego Symphony The San Diego Symphony is an American symphony orchestra, based in San Diego, California. The orchestra is resident at Copley Symphony Hall. The orchestra also serves as the orchestra for the San Diego Opera. History On December 6th 1910, th ...

at age 14 in 1992. While attending Oberlin College, where she studied with Michel Debost, she received the

Theodore Presser The Theodore Presser Company is an American music publishing and distribution company located in Malvern, Pennsylvania, formerly King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, and originally based in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. It is the oldest continuing music pub ...

Foundation Award in 1999 which she used to commission new compositions for the flute.Chipman, Michael (September 1999)
"Claire Chase Wins 1999 Presser Music Award, Launches Project to Expand Flute Repertory in 2000"
''Backstage Pass'' (Oberlin College). Retrieved 3 December 2012. She received her B.M. from Oberlin in 2001. Concert Artists Guild
Artist Profile: Clare Chase
. Retrieved 3 December 2012.

Career

After graduating from Oberlin, Chase founded the

International Contemporary Ensemble The International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) is a contemporary classical music ensemble, based in New York City and Chicago. ICE performs a diverse and extensive array of chamber, electro-acoustic, improvisatory, and multimedia works. History T ...

(ICE) in 2001, and was its Executive/Artistic Director until 2017. ICE established musical innovation as central to the recipe not only for cultural survival, but also for popular success, with its flexible entrepreneurial structure and inclusive educational mission. Chase recently stepped down from the leadership of ICE to focus on her performing career and to make way for other long-term projects, including “Density 2036.” After winning first prize in the Concert Artists Guild competition in 2008, she made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2010 at the Weill Recital Hall. So far, Chase has premiered over 100 new solo works for the flute, incorporating extended techniques and electro-acoustic elements. Her first solo album, ''Aliento'' was released in 2009 and was one of ''Time Out Chicago'''s Top 10 Classical Albums of 2009. Chase has performed world-wide as a soloist and chamber musician in diverse venues including

(Le) Poisson Rouge (Le) Poisson Rouge (often referred to as LPR) is a music venue and multimedia art cabaret in New York City founded in 2008 by Justin Kantor and David Handler on the former site of the Village Gate at 158 Bleecker Street. The performance space wa ...

Miller Theatre Miller Theatre at Columbia University is located on the Morningside Heights campus of Columbia University. It is a performing arts producer dedicated to developing and presenting new music. In 1988, the former McMillin Theater was renovated and ...

, and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C., the

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts, which houses significant examples of European, Asian, and American art. Its collection includes paintings, sculpture, tapestries, and decorative arts. It was found ...

in Boston, the

Sibelius Academy The Sibelius Academy ( fi, Taideyliopiston Sibelius-Akatemia, sv, Sibelius-Akademin vid Konstuniversitetet) is part of the University of the Arts Helsinki and a university-level music school which operates in Helsinki and Kuopio, Finland. It al ...

in Helsinki, the

Palacio de Bellas Artes The Palacio de Bellas Artes (Palace of Fine Arts) is a prominent cultural center in Mexico City. It has hosted notable events in music, dance, theatre, opera and literature in Mexico and has held important exhibitions of painting, sculpture and p ...

in Mexico City, and other venues throughout Europe. Over the past decade Claire Chase has given the world premieres of hundreds of new works for the flute in performances throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia, and she has championed new music throughout the world by building organizations, forming alliances, pioneering commissioning initiatives, and supporting educational programs that reach new audiences. She began "Density 2036" in 2014, a 22-year project to commission a significant body of new music for the flute, culminating in the one-hundredth anniversary of Edgard Varèse's " Density 21.5" of 1936. She is also working on ''Pan,'' a new 90-minute work for solo flutist, live electronics, and a large ensemble of players from the community in which it is performed. Beginning in the fall of 2017 Chase has been appointed as Professor of the Practice in the Music Department at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

. Chase will hold the 2022–23 Richard and Barbara Debs Composer's Chair at Carnegie Hall.

Discography

*''Density 2036: parts v 2017-2018'' (2020, Corbett vs. Dempsey Records) *''Density 2036: parts iv 2016'' (2020, Corbett vs. Dempsey Records) *''Density 2036: parts iii 2015'' (2020, Corbett vs. Dempsey Records) *''Density 2036: parts i & ii 2013-2104'' (2020, Corbett vs. Dempsey Records) *''Density'' (2013, New Focus Recordings) *''Terrestre'' (2012, New Focus Recordings) *''Died in the Wool'' (2011,

Samadhi Sound Samadhi Sound (or samadhisound) is an independent record label founded by singer and musician David Sylvian after his departure from Virgin Records in the late nineties. The label mainly serves as a platform for Sylvian to release his own wor ...

) *''Bright and Hollow Sky'' (2011, New Focus Recordings) *''Undersong'' (2011,

Mode Records Mode Records is an American record label in New York City that concentrates on contemporary classical music and other forms of avant-garde music. The label was founded by Brian Brandt in 1984, with a goal of releasing music composed by John Cage. ...

) *''Aliento'' (2009, New Focus Recordings) *''Enter Houses Of'' (2009,

Tzadik Records Tzadik Records is a record label in New York City that specializes in avant-garde and experimental music. The label was established by composer and saxophonist John Zorn in 1995. He is the executive producer of all Tzadik releases. Tzadik is a n ...

) *''Complete Crumb Edition, Vol. 12'' (2008,

Bridge Records Bridge Records is an independent record label that specializes in classical music located in New Rochelle, New York. History A classical guitarist, David Starobin recorded the Boccherini Guitar Quintet in E minor in the 1970s. This was his first ...

) With John Zorn *'' On the Torment of Saints, the Casting of Spells and the Evocation of Spirits'' (Tzadik, 2013) *'' Fragmentations, Prayers and Interjections'' (Tzadik, 2014)

Awards

*2017 Avery Fisher Prize *2012

MacArthur Fellowship The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 indi ...

*2010 Carlos Surinach PrizeBMI Foundation (4 May 2010)
"Claire Chase and Evan Johnson Named Carlos Surinach Award Winners"
Retrieved 3 December 2012. *2008 First Prize Concert Artists Guild Competition *2001 First Prize National Young Artist Competition *1999

Foundation Award *1996 Presidential Scholar Award from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts

Claire Chase, flute, Executive Director
. Retrieved 3 December 2012. *1995 First Prize California Young Artists Competition

References

External links

Claire Chase's WebsiteICE Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chase, Clare American classical flautists Oberlin Conservatory of Music alumni MacArthur Fellows 1978 births Living people People from Encinitas, California Musicians from California 20th-century American musicians 20th-century classical musicians 21st-century American musicians 21st-century classical musicians Women flautists 20th-century American women musicians 21st-century American women musicians 20th-century flautists 21st-century flautists