Lance Inouye
Associate Professor of Music, Director of Orchestral Activities
Director of Orchestral Activities and Music Director and Conductor of the Lewis and Clark Orchestra, Lance Inouye teaches courses in music theory, musicianship, and conducting. He is 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, where he premiered the music of LC professor Freddy Vilches. 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 for several seasons and was 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 Hawai’i Symphony Orchestra, Hawai’i Opera Theatre, Corvallis-OSU Symphony, Walla Walla Symphony, the Naples Philharmonic, Honolulu Symphony, Temple University Opera Theatre (Die Zauberflöte), and in Russia, Inouye he has guest conducted 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.
Inouye has been a prizewinner at conducting competitions throughout Europe, most notably receiving 2nd prize in the 2019 Makris International Conducting Competition in Belgrade, Serbia. Inouye studied under David Zinman at the Aspen Music Festival in the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen, received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in orchestral conducting from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and completed his post-graduate studies in Russia at the St. Petersburg State Conservatory “Rimsky-Korsakov.”
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.