While still in her teens she moved to Belgium to study privately with Arthur Grumiaux, who is noted as "holding her in regard for her energy and the way in which she put into practice what he taught...(and) she remained one of his preferred pupils.
[3][4] Chase's playing is characterized by "virtuosity galore,"[5] with "great intensity and a huge tone, the epitome of the modern violinist,"[6] and she is "renowned for her impeccable intonation.
Her active repertoire features over 50 concertos[8] and she has soloed in collaboration with conductors that include Zubin Mehta, Leonard Slatkin, Herbert Blomstedt, Frans Brüggen, Marin Alsop, Roy Goodman, Hugh Wolff and Stanislaw Skrowaczewski.
"[10] In October 2011, her New York recital with pianist Sara Davis Buechner was chosen by WQXR as one of "20 Concerts to Hear This Fall"[11] and by Musical America as a "Critic's Choice.
"[12] That same month she gave the apparent North American concert premiere of the "Sonata in A Major for violin solo, MS 83" by Niccolo Paganini at a recital at New York University.
[13] In the fall of 2012 she performed all ten of Beethoven's Violin Sonatas in consecutive nights with pianist Sara Davis Buechner, her frequent recital partner, at New York's Yamaha Piano Salon.
Chase attained world prominence as a top medalist of the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1982,[15] an achievement that is especially remarkable in view of the extremely poor relations that existed between the United States and the Soviet Union at the time[16] plus the fact that violin jury chairman Leonid Kogan had two of his own students, Viktoria Mullova and Sergei Stadler, competing.
In 1986, Chase was a featured soloist with the Hong Kong Philharmonic on its debut concert tour of the People's Republic of China, with Kenneth Schermerhorn conducting.
It has been selected as “one of the twenty most outstanding performances in the work's recorded history”[18] and honored with the highest possible ratings by BBC Music Magazine in a review by scholar H. C. Robbins Landon.