WINSTON-SALEM -- On Nov. 22, the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) will present a special concert at the Roger L. Stevens Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Winston-Salem, in recognition of the venue’s 25^th anniversary.

The concert, by the UNCSA Symphony Orchestra, will feature Maestro John Mauceri, a world-renowned conductor and founding director of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, conducting his first orchestral concert here since he was named chancellor of UNCSA in 2006. He will be wearing a new set of tails for the occasion, designed for him by award-winning costume designer William Ivey Long.

Maestro Mauceri will conduct Dmitri Shostakovich’s masterpiece – the emotionally charged and uplifting Fifth Symphony – on the second half of the program.

The first half of the program will be conducted by graduate conducting students and will feature UNCSA Concerto Competition winners. The concert will open with Johannes Brahms’ Academic Festival Overture. Concerto Competition winners Corey Dundee, saxophone, and Kristen Vanderschaaf, flute, will perform Russell Peck’s The Upward Stream for saxophone and orchestra and Frank Martin’s Ballade for flute and orchestra, respectively. Student conductors Andrew McAfee, Valentino Piran and Konstantin Dobroykov will take turns on the podium.

The concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $12 for adults and $10 for seniors and students. For tickets, call the UNCSA Box Office at 336-721-1945, or buy them online at www.uncsa.edu/performances.

Immediately following the performance, there will be a brief ceremony on stage to celebrate this important milestone for the Winston-Salem community.

It was 25 years ago this year that the Stevens Center was unveiled as a magnificent performance and training venue for UNCSA students.

From April 22-24, 1983, gala performances celebrated the opening of the Stevens Center, named for legendary theatrical producer and arts administrator Roger L. Stevens. Gregory Peck served as master of ceremonies. Leonard Bernstein conducted the student orchestra, with violinist Isaac Stern as soloist. Other performers included Jean Stapleton, Zoe Caldwell, and alumni Mel A. Tomlinson and Heather Watts. Also participating were Agnes de Mille, Sir Anton Dolin, Cliff Robertson, Oliver Smith, N.C. Gov. James Hunt, President and Mrs. Gerald Ford, and Mrs. Lyndon Baines Johnson. Performances of Cole Porter's Kiss Me Kate rounded out the celebration.

“The fact that the Maestro Mauceri is conducting his first orchestral concert here with student conductors, 25 years after his mentor conducted a student orchestra in the very same venue, makes this an extraordinary event,” said UNCSA Interim School of Music Dean Michael Rothkopf.

Chancellor Mauceri worked with Leonard Bernstein for 18 years on many important projects. As a result, Mauceri has edited, supervised, and conducted numerous Bernstein works – many of them premieres – throughout the world, at the invitation of the late composer.

Jamie Bernstein, daughter of Leonard Bernstein, is expected to be in the audience on Nov. 22.

John Mauceri is the founding director of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and the chancellor of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem. His unprecedented 16 years at the Hollywood Bowl attracted more than 4 million people to his concerts. Mauceri is an internationally acclaimed conductor who has worked with the major orchestras and opera companies of the world, including New York's Metropolitan Opera, the Chicago Symphony, the London Symphony, the Teatro alla Scala in Milan and  the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He is the former music director of four opera companies (Washington, Pittsburgh, Scottish and Turin's Teatro Regio) as well as the American Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. As an educator, he served for 15 years on the faculty of Yale University and currently heads America's first public arts conservatory. Mauceri is the winner of numerous awards, including Tony, Grammy, Olivier, Emmy, Deutsche Schallplatten and Edison. He recently became a creative consultant for Walt Disney Educational Productions, and has just returned from conducting The Pearl Fishers at Lyric Opera of Chicago, and “A Fine Romance,” the star-studded fund-raiser for the Motion Picture & Television Fund in Los Angeles.

The Stevens Center, located at the city’s center, has played an important role in the transformation of downtown Winston-Salem into a mecca for the arts and economic redevelopment. Through the Stevens Center, the school has provided unparalleled performances and cultural outreach to the local community. In addition to UNCSA student, faculty and guest artist performances, the Stevens Center offers its own popular series, the Something For Everyone Series. The Stevens Center is also home venue for many local arts organizations, including Piedmont Opera Theatre, the Winston-Salem Symphony, and the National Black Theatre Festival.

Before it was the Stevens Center, the 11-story building at 405 West Fourth St. was a 1929 silent movie theatre, known for many years as the Carolina Theatre. Media General (Winston-Salem Journal), the building’s owner, donated the building to the school in 1980. The renovation took nearly $10 million and involved major corporations, foundations, private donors, the city of Winston-Salem, and three separate federal agencies.

The University of North Carolina School of the Arts is the first state-supported, residential school of its kind in the nation. Established as the North Carolina School of the Arts by the N.C. General Assembly in 1963, UNCSA opened in Winston-Salem (“The City of the Arts”) in 1965 and became part of the University of North Carolina system 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. UNCSA is the state’s only public arts conservatory, dedicated entirely to the professional training of talented students in the performing, visual and moving image arts. UNCSA is located at 1533 S. Main St., Winston-Salem. For more information, visit www.uncsa.edu.

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