Nancy Jean Van de Vate (née Hayes; December 30, 1930 – July 29, 2023) was an American-born Austrian composer, violist and pianist.

[12] She also played viola in the Knoxville Symphony, founded a chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW) in Tennessee, and directed the Southeastern Composers League.

[2][18][19] Van de Vate composed seven operas, many orchestral works including concertos for one or more instruments, and chamber music.

A CD of orchestral works was produced in 1990, named after Distant Worlds, and played by the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Szymon Kawalla [pl][23] Arnold Whittall reviewed the album for Gramophone; he summarized: "Her orchestral music undoubtedly makes its presence felt, especially by means of densely dissonant climaxes whose weight and seriousness are appropriate to works with such grandly evocative titles", adding that it "lacks that distinctiveness and magnetism".

[25] Her Krakow Concerto became the title of a 1991 album by the same performers, including also her Katyn, Schoenberg's A Survivor from Warsaw, and Penderecki's Dies irae.

[26] Her vocal composition Cocaine Lil was recorded by Dietburg Spohr [de] and her ensemble belcanto, as the final track of a 1994 CD named after Hanns Eisler's Woodburry-Liederbüchlein.