CHANCE, Nancy Laird

Nancy Laird Chance is an American composer and pianist, born on 19 March 1931. She studied piano with William R. Smith and Lilias Mackinnon, attended Bryn Mawr College, and later studied theory and composition at Columbia University with Vladimir Ussachevsky, Otto Luening and Chou Wen-chung. bruceduffie.com
After her studies, Chance worked as a pianist, teacher, composer and arts administrator in the United States and in Nairobi, Kenya, where she lived and taught from 1974 to 1978. Her works have been performed at major venues including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. bruceduffie.com
She received the ASCAP/Nissim Prize twice: in 1981 for Liturgy and in 1984 for Odysseus. She also received two National Endowment for the Arts awards and fellowships from the MacDowell Colony and Sundance Film. bruceduffie.com
Her vocal output includes Three Poems by Rilke, Edensong and Dark Song.