American Composer Nancy Van de Vate has Died, Aged 92

The esteemed composer and founder of the League of Women Composers has passed away in her Vienna home

Born in 1930 in Plainfield, New Jersey, Nancy Van de Vate was known worldwide for her music in the large forms. She was later based in Austria for many decades.

A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, Wellesley College, University of Mississippi, Florida State University, Dartmouth College, and the University of New Hampshire, Van de Vate studied piano, music theory, music composition, and electronic music.

She was the acclaimed composer of the operas All Quiet on the Western Front, Hamlet, and Where The Cross Is Made. In 1987, she wrote Chernobyl, as a direct reaction to the 1986 nuclear catastrophe.

As one of her 26 orchestral works, Chernobyl was widely broadcast after its 1987 record release and performed in Vienna, Hamburg, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, the Chautauqua Festival, and played by the Portland Symphony Orchestra. 

In 2006, Chernobyl was performed by the Yale Symphony Orchestra to mark the 20th anniversary of the nuclear accident. 

Van de Vate wrote over 100 compositions including numerous solo and chamber music for different instruments and ensembles. Nearly all of her works are published and administered by American Composers Alliance in New York City.

In 1975, Van de Vate founded the International League of Women Composers. Steadfast in her advocacy of women composers, she featured many of their works on the Vienna Modern Masters label, which she founded in 1990 and served as its president and artistic director.

As an educator, she taught music composition at Vienna’s Institute for European Studies and was a faculty member at the Jakarta Conservatory, plus at 11 colleges and universities in the U.S. 

Additionally, she participated in the 2005 World Music Council meeting in Los Angeles, and for 20 years served as a nominator for the Kyoto Prize in Music. Her biography, “Journeys Through the Life and Music of Nancy Van de Vate,” was published in 2004.

She is survived by her three children and six grandchildren. Our condolences to Ms. Van de Vate’s family, friends, students, and colleagues.