Biography
I studied with Irwin Freundlich as a graduate student at The Juilliard School. A number of notable Bay Area pianists and instructors also studied with Mr. Freundlich, including Robin Sutherland of the San Francisco Symphony, Robert Commanday, former chief music critic of the San Francisco Chronicle, and three teachers at the San Francisco Conservatory - Sharon Mann, Mack McCray, and Katherine Buss.
I have performed with the Utah Symphony, the Music in the Mountains Festival orchestra, with San Francisco Symphony musicians on Chamber Music Sundaes programs, and in numerous local recitals. In the fall of 2006, I began playing monthly recitals at my home, with the intention of working my way through the piano sonatas of Beethoven.
Teaching piano has been my primary profession for over 25 years.
Laurence Rosenthal on Chip’s teaching:
Chip Brimhall is above all and by any standards a superb musician. This is unmistakably demonstrated by his remarkable capacities as a pianist and his excellence as a teacher.
I have carefully watched the progress of my young son's piano studies under Chip's tutelage. He came to Chip as a near-beginner and has worked steadily with him for a number of years.
Sitting in on innumerable lessons, I have been able to observe Chip's extraordinary ability to instill in a pupil, often by persistent questioning, a growing understanding and sensitivity to the very nature of the materials of music. With a combination of exacting technical demands, constant probing for inner meaning, and lively conversation about the nature of a phrase, a rhythm, a harmony - all seasoned with generous measures of lightness, good humor, and enjoyment of the beauties being encountered - Chip draws the pupil into a deeper appreciation of the essence of musical art, and a vital engagement with it.
All of this intelligence and intuition has been made wonderfully evident in the series of recitals in which Chip himself has been exploring with increasing depth the complete piano sonatas of Beethoven. His performances are not only graced by a formidable technique, but are profoundly revealing of Beethoven's inner world, and engender in the listening student an intense desire to participate in the magic of great music.
Laurence Rosenthal (website) studied composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, and composed the scores for such films as A Raisin in the Sun, Requiem For a Heavyweight, The Miracle Worker, and Becket.
