1928, Oct 18 | Born in Enid, OK |
1934 | Begins piano lessons, age 6 |
1942 | Begins playing marimba as a hobby |
1947–49 | Attends William Woods College and graduates with an A.A. in Liberal Arts |
1947 | Interest in ethnomusicology starts when she writes her first term paper researching the marimba, her chosen musical instrument |
1948 | Wins 30-state marimba contest sponsored by The Chicago Tribune. Prize is to appear as soloist before 80,000 people as part of concert at Chicagoland Music Festival, Soldiers’ Field |
1949–51 | Attends Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, and graduates with B.Mus. degrees in Performance and Music Literature |
1950 | Attends Alliance Française, Paris; receives Certificate of French language |
1953–1954 | Completes M. Mus. degrees in Percussion and Theory from American Conservatory, Chicago |
1953, Nov 4 | Formal debut as classical marimbist at Fullerton Hall, Chicago Art institute |
1956 | First major public recital; Chicago |
1956, Nov 19 | Debut at New York’s Town Hall on marimba |
1957 | Receives Fulbright Scholarship to begin research in Guatemala on the history of the marimba |
1959 | Carnegie Hall performance |
1960, Sept 16 | Formal premiere in Guatemala of Concertino para Marimba Y Orquestra |
1962 | European concert debut Makes first professional recording of marimba music under Epic label Injures hand in a gas stove explosion Studies linguistics and translation at Summer Institute of Linguistics, Norman, OK |
1962–3 | Studies Greek and New Testament at Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, KY |
1964 | The Marimbas of Guatemala published First travels to Papua New Guinea |
1965 | Teams up with Darlene Bee to work with the Usarufa people of Papua New Guinea teaching literacy and doing music analysis |
1972 | Begins work as a doctoral candidate at Universityof Auckland, NZ. Recieves word that Darlene Bee has died in a plane crash in Papua New Guinea |
1974 | Completes dissertation and then pushes to finish Usarufa NT translation by Papua New Guinea’s independence date (1976) |
1975 | Summer, teaches class on Music of Papua New Guinea during summer semester at Chicago Musical College, Roosevelt University |
Fall, begins teaching at Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL (although formal tenure does not begin until 1977) | |
1976 | Takes first student intern to Papua New Guinea |
1980, June 9 | Last concert appearance at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, New York City |
1981 | Dedication of Usarufa New Testament |
1985 | Induction into Oklahoma Hall of Fame |
1993 | Retires from the position at Wheaton College |
1994 | Induction into Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame Makes first contribution to the Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center, The Library of Congress, Wash. DC |
2001 | Named one of the 2000 Outstanding Musicians of the 20th Century by the International Biographical Centre, Cambridge, England |
2006 | Documentation completed for the “Chenoweth Collection” in the Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center, The Library of Congress |
2018, Dec 14 | Dies in Enid, OK |