An expressive and intentional musician, Bridget Nance is passionate about connecting with audiences through orchestral, chamber, and solo performance. She has performed on oboe and English horn with orchestras across the U.S., including the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra. Highlights include premiering Ramos Triano’s Joy with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and performing on English horn with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra on Bernstein’s Mass. Over the course of her undergraduate and graduate studies, Bridget has worked with a number of prominent conductors such as Manfred Honeck, Leonard Slatkin, and Christian Măcelaru, and performed as principal oboe on major programs including Strauss’s Don Juan (Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra), Copland’s Appalachian Spring (Waco Symphony Orchestra), and Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 (Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic).
A native of Rochester, NY, Bridget first fell in love with the oboe’s sound while attending a
Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra concert in elementary school. At age 15, she was featured as a soloist with the orchestra, performing J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 alongside her parents, Shannon and Wesley Nance. In recent years, Bridget has become especially enthusiastic about the English horn, and has performed the expansive English horn parts in Mahler’s Symphonies No. 1 and 4 with the Credo National Festival Orchestra at Chicago’s Symphony Center. An aspiring English horn specialist, she has given multiple performances of Copland’s Quiet City for Eastman’s Summer Trumpet Institute Faculty Recital, and actively seeks opportunities to expand her knowledge of the instrument and its repertoire.
Outside of the orchestral setting, Bridget is an avid chamber musician who has worked on a wide range of woodwind quintet repertoire, as well as repertoire for oboe, horn, and piano - a favorite instrumental combination of hers. Highlights have been performing Reinecke’s Trio for Piano, Oboe, and Horn and Ligeti’s Six Bagatelles for Wind Quintet on Rice University recitals. She loves exploring the intersection of faith and music, and has performed works such as John Rutter’s Requiem and Sibelius’ Be Still My Soul with choirs in the Pittsburgh area. During her senior year at Carnegie Mellon University, she commissioned a work by Chris Massa for solo oboe titled Into the Silent Land, which explored the role of silence in prayer and contemplation. Bridget is entering the second year of her master’s degree at Rice University, studying with Professor Erin Hannigan. When not whittling away at the reed desk, Nance can be found developing new homemade ice cream recipes, watercoloring in a local park, or exploring the food scene in Houston with friends!
