Rolande Maxwell Young Schrade was born in Washington, D.C. She was an American composer, pianist, teacher, and the matriarch of a musical family with five children. After studying at Catholic University, she became a pupil of Harold Bauer at the Manhattan School of Music, and of Vittorio Giannini at the Juilliard School. In 1949, she married Robert Warren Schrade, an internationally-known concert pianist and faculty member at the Manhattan School of Music.