Lance Inouye

Associate Professor of Music, Director of Orchestral Activities

Evans Center 19, MSC: 18

Lance Inouye, Music Director and Conductor of the Lewis and Clark Orchestra, teaches courses in conducting, music theory, and musicianship. He is the Artistic Director and Conductor of the Willamette Valley Symphony, and The Portland Concert Opera. Active as a guest lecturer and conductor, Inouye has recently given conducting masterclasses at Mahidol University College of Music in Bangkok, Thailand, and at the Instituto de Formación Integral Coro y Orquesta Urubichá, in Bolivia. Inouye was invited along with fellow Lewis & Clark faculty member, Freddy Vilches to perform Vilches’ music with the Orquesta Urubichá. In the 2020-2021 season, Inouye joined the Portland Opera as coach and conductor on their Journeys to Justice production, conducting Carlos Simon’s Night Trip and Damien Geter’s The Talk, featuring Resident Artists and the Portland Opera Chorus. Inouye previously served on the music staff of Florida Grand Opera in Miami as Assistant Conductor and Coach for Eugene Onegin, Un ballo in maschera, and FGO’s premiere of Jorge Martin’s Before Night Falls. He also served on the conducting/music staff of Sarasota Opera where he worked on numerous productions including Le nozze di Figaro, Halka, La rondine, Cosi fan tutte, Elixir of Love, Tosca, La boheme, Don Carlos, Cavalleria rusticana, Pagliacci, Rigoletto, and Hansel and Gretel, among others. Inouye made his Sarasota Opera Orchestra debut conducting a highly acclaimed Gala concert of scenes and choruses. At Sarasota Opera, Inouye was also Music Director and Conductor of the Sarasota Youth Opera where he conducted the U.S. premiere of Dean Burry’s The Hobbit, Aaron Copland’s The Second Hurricane, Judith Weir’s The Black Spider, and led the Youth Opera on its first international tour in Italy. Inouye previously served as Music Director and Conductor of The Opera Intimi Project, Tel Aviv, where he conducted Puccini’s opera Le Villi at Hateiva Theatre in Tel Aviv, Israel.  

Inouye previously held the position of Conducting Assistant with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and has served as cover conductor for the Norwalk Symphony Orchestra and the Sarasota Orchestra. He has appeared as guest conductor with the Hawai’i Symphony Orchestra, Walla Walla Symphony, Salem Philharmonia, Willamette Valley Symphony, Temple University Opera Theatre (Magic Flute), the Naples Philharmonic, Honolulu Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra, Old Dominion University Symphony, Queens College Orchestra, and the College-Conservatory of Music Philharmonia and Concert Orchestras in Cincinnati where he served as Assistant Conductor. Active in contemporary music, Inouye has also conducted a number of world premieres in New York’s Weill Recital Hall.

In Russia, Inouye has led the St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra “Klassika,” Karelia Philharmonic, Sochi Symphony Orchestra, and the St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic of which he served as Associate Conductor for three seasons. He has also performed with soloists of the Mariinsky Theater and the St. Petersburg and Moscow State Conservatories.

Inouye was recently awarded second prize at the Makris International Conducting Competition in Belgrade, Serbia, and has been a prizewinner at other competitions including the Dittrich International Conducting Competition with the Duna Symphony Orchestra in Budapest, Hungary (2014), and the Kammerphilharmonie Graz Conducting Competition in Graz, Austria (2016). He was awarded conducting fellowships to the Aspen Music Festival (American Academy of Conducting at Aspen) where he served as assistant and cover conductor for Aspen Opera Theater’s production of Carmen, as well as the Brevard Music Festival.  At Aspen, Inouye was nominated by David Zinman and Murry Sidlin for the Aspen-Glimmerglass Conducting Prize. 

Inouye received his DMA degree in orchestral conducting from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, MM from the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College, and did his post-graduate studies in Russia at the St. Petersburg State Conservatory “Rimsky-Korsakov.”

www.lanceinouye.com

Academic Credentials

D.MA, College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati. M.M., Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College, City University of New York. B.M., Berklee College of Music. Additional Studies, St. Petersburg State Conservatory, “Rimsky-Korsakov,” Russia.