WINSTON-SALEM – The 50^th Annual Grammy Awards weren’t just special for the North Carolina School of the Arts because Chancellor John Mauceri and two music students wowed the audience at the awards ceremonies Sunday night (Feb. 10).

They were special because an NCSA alumnus walked away with a Grammy – and another alumnus saw his Broadway show’s album win a Grammy.

NCSA School of Drama (yes, Drama!) alumnus Jim Lauderdale ’79 won another 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.

Look for a new country & western album from Lauderdale later this month: “Country Super Hits, Vol. 1.” Lauderdale will be performing at MerleFest in Wilkesboro, N.C., in April.

In addition, the original Broadway cast album for “Spring Awakening” won Best Musical Show Album. While the Grammy went to the album producer and composer (Duncan Sheik) and lyricist (Steven Sater), NCSA School of Drama alumnus Tom Hulce ’71/’74 must be feeling very proud as producer of the Broadway show.

The album for “Grey Gardens” was also nominated in the same category; NCSA School of Drama alumnus Edwin Schloss ‘’72 was a producer of that Broadway show.

Chancellor John Mauceri wowed the audience when he conducted his arrangement of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” for two solo pianos and orchestra. The soloists were Chinese virtuoso Lang Lang and multi-Grammy winner and American jazz icon Herbie Hancock.

Maestro Mauceri, who is himself a Grammy Award-winner and recipient of numerous Grammy nominations, had conducted the Grammys only once before: in 1994, when he conducted Placido Domingo on the Grammy Awards telecast. 

Two School of Music students from the North Carolina School of the Arts performed with the 31-member Grammy orchestra: first-year graduate student Angela Michelle “Shelly” Story, violin, from Emerald Isle, N.C., and third-year college student Kendall Ramseur, cello, from Charlotte, N.C.  The students also performed in the orchestra for Alicia Keys and John Mayer and for Josh Groban and Andrea Bocelli.

Chancellor Mauceri has made it his practice to share his professional experiences with NCSA students. When he was asked to arrange/conduct “Rhapsody in Blue” for the telecast, he requested that The Recording Academy allow him to bring along a couple of his best students – and the academy agreed.