Ellen Chase, PhD, is the second-generation operator of the Folk Music Center (FMC) in Claremont, California. Founded in 1958 by Ellen’s parents, Charles and Dorothy Chase, the FMC is a non-profit educational and cultural corporation offering music instruction, cultural programming, and a museum of antique instruments to the community of Claremont. In addition, Ellen is an active musician and music instructor at the FMC.

Born in Exeter, New Hampshire, on February 19, 1947, Ellen was ten years old when her family relocated to Claremont. The family’s move was precipitated by the blacklisting and subsequent firing of Ellen’s father, a schoolteacher who had been a member of the Communist Party in the 1930s. Later in life, Ellen explored the history of McCarthyism in Los Angeles public schools in her PhD dissertation in Education at the Claremont Graduate School (now CGU).

Ellen began managing the FMC in 2001, following several years of teaching reading and language acquisition at Pacific Oaks College and Cal State San Bernardino. While the store continues to be the primary focus of her working life, she recently recorded an album, Childhood Home, with her son, Ben Harper. At the time of the interview, she was in the process of recording her first solo album.

In this interview, Ellen discusses her family’s tradition of left-wing political activism, the fallout from her father’s blacklisting, the early history of the Folk Music Center, Claremont in the 1960s, the folk music revival in greater Los Angeles, her own experiences as a musician, her PhD research, and the changing nature of community in Claremont today.