Nancy Maria Balach is Director of the Institute for the Arts and Professor of Music at the University of Mississippi. She is also the CEO and Artistic Director of the Living Music Resource™ (LMR), an initiative she founded in 2013 that reflects her commitment to collaboration and innovation in the arts.
Balach is a versatile soprano with vast performing experience across North America with opera companies and symphony orchestras. Her recorded work appears on Albany Records, Newport Classic, New World Records, VOX Classics, and Operetta Archives. A dedicated advocate for new music, she actively commissions and performs contemporary works and presents her research internationally. She was named a 2022 Mississippi Arts Commission Artist Fellowship recipient in the Solo Vocal category.

Her extensive performance and teaching experience led to the creation of the Living Music Resource™, a catalyst for creativity grounded in the philosophy that education and entertainment together, Edutainment, prepare artists for today’s artistic economy. LMR connects the university’s musical arts with alumni, communities, and industry leaders while curating transformative learning experiences that emphasize adaptability, collaboration, and real-world engagement. Through this work, Balach brings acclaimed professionals to Mississippi, including Grammy Award recipients, Pulitzer Prize winners, and artists from Broadway and The Metropolitan Opera, while also championing Mississippi artists and genres ranging from punk to classical. Her leadership reflects a Music Research Revolution centered on effectual entrepreneurship.

Balach served as Chair of Music 2019-2026 and in this role enjoyed advancing the department and advocating for its many constituents. In 2021-22, she was selected as a Fellow in the SEC Academic Leadership Development Program, and in 2026 and 2024 she represented the university in Washington, D.C., for the Humanities Advocacy Day and the National Humanities Alliance Annual Meeting.
Service to both her profession and community is central to Balach’s work. She served two terms as Mississippi District Governor of the National Association of Teachers of Singing; has twice represented the City of Oxford in Dance Like the Stars, helping raise more than $270,000 annually for the Boys and Girls Clubs of North Mississippi; and has been part of the North Mississippi Symphony Orchestra’s Carnegie Hall Link Up Programs since 2012 which provides thousands of Mississippi children a formidable musical experience.