Conductor Lance Inouye

Japanese-American conductor, Lance Inouye, is Artistic Director and Conductor of the Willamette Valley Symphony, Artistic Director of The Portland Concert Opera, and Music Director/Conductor of the Lewis & Clark Orchestra where he is Director of Orchestral Activities at Lewis & Clark College. 

Lance Inouye’s diverse conducting career has led to engagements with Portland Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Sarasota Opera, Hawai’i Opera Theatre, as well as orchestras across the U.S. and abroad. Inouye previously held the position of Conducting Assistant with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and has appeared as guest conductor with the Naples Philharmonic, Hawai’i Symphony Orchestra, Walla Walla Symphony, Temple University Opera Theatre, 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 recently given conducting masterclasses in Bangkok, Thailand, and at the Instituto de Formación Integral Coro y Orquesta Urubichá, in Bolivia, where he premiered the music of Chilean composer Freddy Vilches. 

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 prestigious 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.”