Nancy Van de Vate

Nancy Jean Van de Vate (; December 30, 1930 – July 29, 2023) was an American-born Austrian composer, violist and pianist. She also used the pseudonyms Helen Huntley and William Huntley. She is known for operas such as All Quiet on the Western Front, and orchestral music such as Chernobyl and Journeys, including concertos like the Kraków Concerto for percussion and orchestra.

Van de Vate taught at several universities in the United States and led composers' organizations such as the Southeastern Composers League and the International League of Women Composers. In 1985, she moved to Vienna, where she taught and founded a CD company for new orchestral music together with her husband.

Life and career Nancy Jean Hayes was born in Plainfield, New Jersey, on December 30, 1930. she graduated from North Plainfield High School in 1948. She studied piano on a scholarship at Eastman School of Music and music theory at Wellesley College. She completed graduate degrees in music composition at the University of Mississippi and Florida State University, where she earned a Ph.D. She pursued further studies in electronic music at Dartmouth College and the University of New Hampshire. The first professional performance of her work was in 1958 the Adagio for orchestra. She moved to Hawaii in 1975 where she first taught at the University of Hawaii, and from 1977 to 1980 at the Hawaii Loa College

She lived permanently in Vienna from 1985.

Personal life In 1952, Van de Vate married Dwight Van de Vate Jr. The couple had three children.

Van de Vate died on July 29, 2023, at age 92, at home in Vienna.

Work Van de Vate composed seven operas, many orchestral works including concertos for one or more instruments, and chamber music. Her music has been seen as influenced by Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Penderecki, Crumb and Varèse. Her works have been performed internationally. Arnold Whittall reviewed the album for Gramophone; he summarized: "Her orchestral music undoubtedly makes its presence felt, especially by means of densely dissonant climaxes whose weight and seriousness are appropriate to works with such grandly evocative titles", adding that it "lacks that distinctiveness and magnetism".

Her Chernobyl and her Violin Concerto was recorded by the same performers on a 1988 CD of mainly works by Penderecki, titled after Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima. Her Krakow Concerto became the title of a 1991 album by the same performers, including also her Katyn, Schoenberg's A Survivor from Warsaw, and Penderecki's Dies irae.

Her vocal composition Cocaine Lil was recorded by and her ensemble belcanto, as the final track of a 1994 CD named after Hanns Eisler's Woodburry-Liederbüchlein.

Opera Hamlet Abschied von Chernobyl, recorded in 2011 by Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Gottfried Rabl

Theatre music Cocaine Lil (1986) for 4–8 jazz singers with small percussion, recorded in 1994 by ensemble belcanto, conducted by A Night in the Royal Ontario Museum (1983) text: Margaret Atwood

Music for strings String Quartet No. 2 (2005) Piano Trio (1983) String Trio (1974) Viola Sonata (1964) String Quartet No. 1 (1969)

Music for percussion Suite for Marimba (2000) Teufelstanz (1988) for six percussionists

Music for mixed ensembles

Music for Viola, Percussion and Piano (1976)

Choral music Cantata for Women's Voices (1979) texts: James Joyce, Walt Whitman, Charles Baudelaire, anon. An American Essay (1972) for choir, piano and percussion, texts: Walt Whitman The Pond (1970) for choir a cappella, text: Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, premiered 1970 Make a Joyful Noise (1963) for chorus and piano (or organ), written under pseudonym William Huntley Psalm 121 (1958)

Keyboard instruments Twelve Pieces for Piano "On One to Twelve Notes" (1986) recorded in 2006 by Catherine Nardiello Fantasy for Harpsichord (1982)