Lance Inouye

Lance Inouye is Artistic Director/Conductor of The Portland Concert Opera and Music Director/Conductor of the Lewis & Clark Orchestra in Portland, Oregon. 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 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 opera Before Night Falls. He previously served on the conducting/music staff of Sarasota Opera for several years 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 Aaron Copland’s The Second Hurricane, Judith Weir's The Black Spider, the U.S. premiere of Dean Burry’s The Hobbit, and led the Youth Opera on its first international tour in Italy. In 2010-2011, he 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 Walla Walla Symphony, Salem Philharmonia Orchestra, Willamette Valley Symphony, Temple University Opera Theatre (Magic Flute), the Naples Philharmonic, Honolulu Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra, Old Dominion University Symphony Orchestra, 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 at Carnegie 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-Kirov Opera and soloists of the St. Petersburg and Moscow State Conservatories.

Inouye has been a prizewinner at recent competitions including 2nd prize in the 2019 Makris International Conducting Competition in Belgrade, Serbia, Dittrich International Conducting Competition with the Duna Symphony Orchestra in Budapest, Hungary (2014), the Kammerphilharmonie Graz Conducting Competition in Graz, Austria (2016), and the International Conducting Workshop and Competition in Atlanta, Georgia, (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 Doctor of Musical Arts 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.”