John Mauceri is the Chancellor of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA), the Founding Director of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and Music Director of Walt Disney’s Legacy Series Concerts. His distinguished and extraordinary career has taken him not only to the world’s greatest opera companies and symphony orchestras, but also the musical stages of Broadway and Hollywood, as well as the most prestigious halls of academia.  Among his many awards and honors are a Tony, Grammy, Billboard, Olivier and two Emmys.

John Mauceri was born in 1945 in New York City. His life in music began when he studied piano with his Sicilian grandfather Baldassare Mauceri who was a composer, instrumental teacher, and conductor of hotel orchestras. Early on he was inspired by television as a portal to the entertainment world. At ten, in response to seeing the film of the King and I, he produced the musical play in his backyard with all his friends.  After also contemplating a career in medicine, he studied Music Theory and Composition at Yale University, launching his conducting and composing career.

Mr. Mauceri has served as music director of four opera companies: Washington (National), Scottish (Glasgow), the Teatro Regio (Turin, Italy) and Pittsburgh. He is the first American to have held the post of music director of an opera house in either Great Britain or Italy. He was the first music director of the American Symphony Orchestra in Carnegie Hall after its founding director, Leopold Stokowski, with whom he studied. He was Consultant for Music Theater at Washington’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for more than a decade, and, for 15 years, he served on the faculty of Yale University. For 18 years, Mr. Mauceri worked closely with Leonard Bernstein and conducted many of the composer’s premieres at Bernstein’s request.

On Broadway, he was co-producer of “On Your Toes,” and served as musical supervisor for Hal Prince’s production of “Candide,” as well as Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Song and Dance.” He also conducted the orchestra for the film version of Evita.

Maestro Mauceri holds the lifetime title of Founding Director of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, which was created for him in 1991 by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and with whom he led over 300 concerts to a total audience of over four million people. He has written for and appeared on radio and television and has delivered keynote speeches and papers for major artistic and educational institutions, such as Harvard University, the American Academy in Berlin, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the American Musicological Society, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Mr. Mauceri has taken the lead in the preservation and performance of many genres of music and has supervised/conducted important premieres by composers as diverse as Debussy, Stockhausen, Korngold, Hindemith, Bernstein, Ives, Elfman, and Shore. He is a leading performer of music banned by the Third Reich and especially music of Hollywood’s émigré composers.

As chancellor of UNCSA, Mr. Mauceri leads America’s first public arts conservatory. Located in Winston-Salem, the university includes music, dance, drama, filmmaking, and design and production curricula for high school, college and graduate degrees.

As UNCSA Chancellor, he has guided the School through some of the most challenging economic times since the Great Depression, while continuing to build upon the institution’s past success. In addition, John has continued to work with the greatest artistic institutions in the world creating opportunities for students to collaborate with performers and creators in the forefront of their fields.

(Bio adapted from artist website.  Photo by Donald Dietz.)