Chris Nance

Chris Nance (October 12, 1940, Charlottesville, Virginia — October 27, 2014, New York City) was an American conductor and music educator. Primarily active as an opera conductor, he served on the conducting staff of the New York City Opera from 1969-1974 and was the music administrator and conductor of the Houston Grand Opera from 1974-1977. Thereafter he worked as a freelance conductor with opera companies throughout the world. He became particularly associated with George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess for which he was frequently hired to conduct at opera houses both in the United States and abroad.

Born in Charlottesville, Virginia, Nance earned a bachelor of music degree from the University of Southern California in 1963 where he was a conducting pupil of Ingolf Dahl. He then joined the music faculty at Louisiana State University where he taught from 1963–1969. He left that position to pursue summer graduate studies in conducting under Walter Ducloux at the University of Texas at Austin where he earned a master's degree in 1972.

While a student at the University of Texas at Austin, Nance began his conducting career as the chorus master at the New York City Opera from 1969-1974. In 1970 he began taking on conducting assignments at the NYCO, beginning with Rigoletto. Over the next four years he led performances of Carmen, Cavalleria Rusticana, La Traviata, Lucia di Lammermoor, Madama Butterfly, and Pagliacci. In 1974 he left the NYCO to become the music administrator and conductor of the Houston Grand Opera. He notably led performances of the lauded 1976 HGO productions of George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess and Scott Joplin's Treemonisha; taking both shows on National tours.

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