Nancy Van de Vate is an American-born composer living in Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

.

Life and career

She was born in Plainfield, New Jersey

Plainfield, New Jersey

Plainfield is a city in Union County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population increased to a record high of 49,808....

 and studied piano at Eastman School of Music

Eastman School of Music

The Eastman School of Music is a music conservatory located in Rochester, New York. The Eastman School is a professional school within the University of Rochester...

 and composition at the University of Mississippi

University of Mississippi

The University of Mississippi, also known as Ole Miss, is a public, coeducational research university located in Oxford, Mississippi. Founded in 1844, the school is composed of the main campus in Oxford, four branch campuses located in Booneville, Grenada, Tupelo, and Southaven as well as the...

 and Florida State University

Florida State University

The Florida State University is a space-grant and sea-grant public university located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a comprehensive doctoral research university with medical programs and significant research activity as determined by the Carnegie Foundation...

. She later pursued further studies in electronic music at Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...

 and the University of New Hampshire

University of New Hampshire

The University of New Hampshire is a public university in the University System of New Hampshire , United States. The main campus is in Durham, New Hampshire. An additional campus is located in Manchester. With over 15,000 students, UNH is the largest university in New Hampshire. The university is...

. She now teaches composition at the Institute for European Studies in Vienna. In 2010 the IES named her Composer-in-Residence.

She is also the founder of the International League of Women Composers (ILWC) in 1975, an international membership organization to create and expand opportunities for women composers of serious music. In 1995 the ILWC merged with two other women-in-music advocacy organizations to form the International Alliance for Women in Music

International Alliance for Women in Music

The International Alliance for Women in Music is an international membership organization of women and men dedicated to fostering and encouraging the activities of women in music, particularly in the areas of musical activity, such as composing, performing, and research, in which gender...

.

Selected works

Opera

• All Quiet on the Western Front (Im Western Nichts Neues), premiered in Osnabrück
  Osnabrück
  Osnabrück is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, some 80 km NNE of Dortmund, 45 km NE of Münster, and some 100 km due west of Hanover. It lies in a valley penned between the Wiehen Hills and the northern tip of the Teutoburg Forest...
  
   in 2003, later by New York City Opera
  New York City Opera
  The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...
  
  
• Where the Cross is Made (2005, winner of National Opera Association competition for chamber opera)

Orchestral

• Chernobyl (CD release, 1987)

Concertante

• Concerto for viola and orchestra (1990)

Chamber

• Music for Viola, Percussion and Piano (1976)
• 6 Etudes for solo viola (1969)
• Sonata for viola and piano (1964)
• Suite for solo viola (1975)
• String Quartet No. 2 (2005)
• Brass Quintet No. 2: Variations on the "Streets of Laredo
  Streets of Laredo (song)
  "Streets of Laredo" , also known as the "Cowboy's Lament", is a famous American cowboy ballad in which a dying cowboy tells his story to a living one. Derived from the English folk song "The Unfortunate Lad", it has become a folk music standard, and as such has been performed, recorded and adapted...
  
  " (2005)
• A Long Road Travelled, Suite for solo viola and string quartet (2007)

Further reading

• Laurdella Foulkes-Levy and Burt Levy, Journeys Through the Life and Music of Nancy Van de Vate (Scarecrow Press, 2004)