Discipline: Music Composition

Nancy Chance

Discipline: Music Composition
Region: Lake Oswego, OR
MacDowell Fellowships: 1981, 1982, 1984
Nancy Chance is an American pianist and composer. She studied at Bryn Mawr College from 1949-50 and Columbia University from 1959-67 with Vladimir Ussachevsky, Otto Luening and Chou Wen-chung. After completing her studies, Chance worked as a piano teacher, composer, and arts administrator. She received the ASCAP/Nissim prize for orchestral composition in 1981 for Liturgy and in 1984 for Odysseus. She also received two awards from the NEA and a fellowship from Sundance Film for composition.

Studios

Sprague-Smith

Nancy Chance worked in the Sprague-Smith studio.

In January of 1976, the original Sprague-Smith Studio — built in 1915–1916 and funded by music students of Mrs. Charles Sprague-Smith of the Veltin School — was destroyed by fire. Redesigned by William Gnade, Sr., a Peterborough builder, the fieldstone structure was rebuilt the same year from the foundation up, reusing the original fieldstone. A few…

Learn more