Otie Chew Becker (December 2, 1880 – January 22, 1953) was an English violinist and music educator based in Los Angeles, California.
Early life Otie Chew was born in London, and lived in Auckland, New Zealand as a girl.Willey Francis Gates, ed., Who's who in Music in California (Pacific Coast Musician 1920): 14. Her original first name was possibly "Ottawa", based on Ottawa, Kansas, where her parents lived before she was born."Miss Otie Chew" Springfield News-Leader (May 28, 1899): 5. via Newspapers.com"Death of Rev. James Chew" Evening Herald (December 7, 1900): 4. via Newspapers.com Her father James Chew was a clergyman."Otie Chew" New Zealand Herald (September 18, 1907). via Papers Past She quickly showed musical potential. She received a scholarship to attend the Royal College of Music in Kensington at age 11.Doug Johnson, Finding aid, Albert and Elaine Atwood collection on Thilo Becker and Otie Chew, 1888 – ca. 1984, UCLA Library Special Collections. She was a student of violinists Emile Sauret and Joseph Joachim."Beautiful Violinist Will Wed Composer" Los Angeles Herald (April 17, 1907): 5. via California Digital Newspaper Collection"Joachim's Students" Joseph Joachim: Biography and Research (November 4, 2014).
Career
Chew's small stature was often contrasted with her powerful sound. "Although a veritable little doll as to stature, she has the biggest and most sonorous tone ever drawn from wood and catgut by one of her sex," proclaimed arts manager C. H. Gibbons that year."She is a very petite person and it is a source of wonder to all how one with a frame so small can bring such powerful harmonies to her loved instrument," noted the Los Angeles Herald. Some early appraisals decried her youthful inexperience, as when New Music Review noted that "Miss Otie Chew played Brahms' violin concerto in an almost completely incompetent manner.""Concerts of the Month" The New Music Review (January 1906): 640. The New York Times had a similar opinion of Chew's 1905 American debut, concluding that "it would be a mournful task to enumerate the defects of her playing.""Philharmonic Opens its Concert Season" New York Times (November 11, 1905): 9.
In Los Angeles after 1905, Otie Chew Becker played with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, gave concerts and taught violin.Catherine Parsons Smith, Making Music in Los Angeles: Transforming the Popular (University of California Press 2007): 57. "Beckers in Los Angeles" Musical America (April 10, 1920): 36. Her "sonata recitals" with pianist husband Thilo Becker were much admired in the Southern California arts community."Thilo Becker and Otie Chew Becker" Pacific Coast Musical Review (October 16, 1920): 70.
Personal life and death Otie Chew married Thilo Becker, an Australian-born pianist and composer, in 1907."Brilliant Musical Union" Los Angeles Times (April 21, 1907): 78. via Newspapers.com They lived in La Crescenta, California. Becker died in 1944,"Thielo Becker" New York Times (December 18, 1944): 19. and Otie Chew died in 1953, aged 72 years."Otie Becker, Noted Music Teacher, Dies" dLos Angeles Times (January 24, 1953): 10. via Newspapers.com
As a young touring artist, Otie Chew was often photographed with her dog, Lutin."A Notable Concert" Vancouver Daily World (February 9, 1907): 11. via Newspapers.com
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