Angela Michelle Story

L-R: Michal Rogalski, Angela Michelle Story, Kendall Ramseur, and Chancellor John Mauceri

Photos by Donald Dietz

“As the School of the Arts’ first performing chancellor, I am eager to share my professional engagements with as many students as possible,” Chancellor Mauceri said. “I am delighted that The Recording Academy (which presents the Grammy Awards) has made it possible for our two NCSA students to participate.”

Chancellor Mauceri has made it his practice to share his professional experiences with NCSA students, and encourages his deans and faculty to do the same. Last spring, he took an entire “West Side Story” company to perform at the prestigious Ravinia Festival in Chicago, where he conducted. Last summer, he took 21 NCSA ballet students to perform Balanchine’s “Serenade” when he was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame with Placido Domingo. Most recently, in November, he took eight students to Austria for a concert in Vienna's Konzerthaus.

Story and Ramseur will fly out to Los Angeles on Tuesday, Feb. 5, to arrive in time for a rehearsal in Burbank on Feb. 6. They will return to Winston-Salem on Feb. 11. Thanks to generous support from friends of the School, all of the expenses related to the students’ participation are being underwritten.

During the Grammy telecast on Feb. 10, Chancellor Mauceri is expected to take the stage at 10:15 p.m. ET.  The students will perform on “Rhapsody in Blue” as well as on Josh Groban’s number. Students at the North Carolina School of the Arts are expected to get into the spirit by having a Grammy party and watching the awards ceremony on campus beginning around 10 p.m. Feb. 10 in Eisenberg Social Hall in the Hanes Student Commons.

Chancellor Mauceri and his NCSA students are likely to see familiar faces at the Grammy Awards. NCSA School of Drama alumnus Jim Lauderdale ’79 is nominated for a Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album (“The Bluegrass Diaries”). Lauderdale won in the category in 2002, with “Lost in the Lonesome Pines,” a collaboration with Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys. In addition, the albums for “Grey Gardens” (Edwin Schloss ’72 School of Drama, producer) and “Spring Awakening” (Tom Hulce ’71/’74 School of Drama, producer) are both nominees for Best Musical Show Album.

John Mauceri is the chancellor of the North Carolina School of the Arts and founding director of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. His distinguished and varied career has brought him not only to the world’s greatest opera companies and symphony orchestras, but also to the musical stages of Broadway and Hollywood as well as the most prestigious halls of academia. Mauceri is the former music director of the Washington (National) Opera, the Scottish Opera (Glasgow), the Teatro Regio (Turin, Italy), the Pittsburgh Opera and the American Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. For 16 seasons he directed the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra which was created for him by the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1991. His record-breaking tenure of 325 concerts at the 18,000-seat amphitheatre attracted a total audience of some 4 million people. Chancellor Mauceri served on the faculty of Yale University for 15 years and returned in 2001 to teach and conduct the official concert celebrating the university’s 300th anniversary. He has published articles throughout the world on music and theatre and is a frequent guest on radio and television. With more than 70 CDs to his credit, he is the winner of numerous awards, including the Grammy, Deutsche Schallplatten, Edison Klassiek, Diapason d'Or and Billboard. In addition, he is the recipient of a Tony, Olivier and two Emmy Awards. He has conducted most of the world's leading orchestras and opera companies.

On Feb. 14-16, Chancellor Mauceri will lead the North Carolina Symphony and a talented group of NCSA actors in a groundbreaking adaptation of Shakespeare’s timeless tragedy “Hamlet.” The performances, in Raleigh and Chapel Hill, will mark the world concert premiere of Dmitri Shostakovich’s score written for Russian director Grigori Kosintsev’s 1964 film version of the play.

Angela Michelle “Shelly” Story, 26, was born and raised in Knoxville, Tenn., and began her violin studies at the University of Tennessee Suzuki Strings Program. She was a member of the Knoxville Junior Philharmonia and the Knoxville Symphony Youth Orchestra. Story was a student of Martha Bachelder-Kauffman and Sue Eddlemon at the Community School of the Arts, where she, after high school graduation, served on the faculty as violin instructor. As an undergraduate, she enrolled at NCSA, where she received a bachelor’s degree in violin performance as a student of Kevin Lawrence. She is currently pursuing her Master of Music at NCSA. Story has served as concertmaster of both the North Carolina School of the Arts Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Conservatory Symphony Orchestra. She is a member of the Winston-Salem Symphony, and a substitute violinist for the New World Symphony Orchestra, Plymouth Philharmonic, Carolina Chamber Symphony and has also served on the faculties of Masterworks School of the Arts in Davidson, N.C., and the Community Music School of the North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, N.C.  She is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jeff Story of Emerald Isle, N.C.

“I am thrilled to have this amazing opportunity,” Story said, “and am so grateful to my friends who are making the trip possible for me.”

Kendall Ramseur, 22, of Charlotte, N.C., is pursuing his Bachelor of Music and studies with Brooks Whitehouse at NCSA. Ramseur has won numerous honors during his studies, and recently took 1st place in the American String Teachers Association (ASTA) Young Artist Competition. He placed second in the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) Concerto Competition and in the Music Academy of North Carolina Cello Competition. He was honored as the Outstanding Cellist at the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center in Charlotte. He has conducted the Charlotte Symphony at one of its “Festival in the Park” concerts, has soloed with the Fayetteville State and Methodist College orchestras, has performed on WDAV radio at Davidson College, and was principal cellist in the Charlotte Symphony Youth Orchestras, where he won the Luski Gorelick Scholarship. He has played in master classes with famous cellists such as Bernard Greenhouse, Janos Starker, Alban Gerhardt, Rupert Thompson and Iris Jortner. He composed a cello concerto during his senior year at Phillip O. Berry Academy of Technology, and performed it for graduation. Ramseur was 1st chair in the North Carolina All-State Orchestra and in the Western Region Honors Orchestra. You may have seen him and his cello on the cover of Charlotte’s South Park magazine, supporting the arts. He is the son of Roswell Ramseur of Charlotte, N.C.

“I cannot begin to express the excitement that is overflowing within me,” Ramseur said. “Music has always been my passion. (This trip) is something that I will definitely carry with me for the rest of my life!”

The North Carolina School of the Arts was the first state-supported, residential school of its kind in the nation. Established by the N.C. General Assembly in 1963, NCSA opened in Winston-Salem in 1965 and became a part of the University of North Carolina in 1972.  More than 1,100 students from middle school through graduate school train for careers in the arts in five professional schools: Dance, Design and Production (including a Visual Arts Program), Drama, Filmmaking, and Music.  For more information about NCSA, visit www.ncarts.edu.                  

                                                                 ###