Born in the USA and now living in Vienna, Austria, composer Nancy Van de Vate is known worldwide for her music in the large forms. Her opera, All Quiet on the Western Front (Im Western nichts Neues), was premiered and performed ten times in Osnabrück, Germany,  in 2003 and included in New York City Opera’s 2003 VOX: Showcasing American Composers series. In 2005, Where the Cross is Made, based on the play by Eugene O’Neill, was winner of the National Opera Association’s international biennial competition for the best new chamber opera and was performed in several American cities. Her 26 orchestral works include the well-known Chernobyl, performed in Vienna, Hamburg, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, and the US, and widely broadcast since it first appeared on compact disc in 1987. Her biography, Journeys through the Life and Music of Nancy Van de Vate, by Professors Laurdella Foulkes-Levy and Burt Levy, was published in 2004 by Scarecrow Press.

A Nominator for the Kyoto Prize since its inception 28 years ago and President of the recording company, Vienna Modern Masters, she also founded the International League of Women Composers in 1975. She studied at the Eastman School of Music, completed her BA at Wellesley College, her M.Mus. (composition) at the University of Mississippi, and D.Mus. (composition) at Florida State University. Author of more than 200 articles, she has taught at eleven US universities, the Jakarta Conservatory, and Webster University and the Institute for European Studies in Vienna.