John Mauceri - Life

Life

Mauceri is the first American ever to have held music directorships of opera houses in either the United Kingdom or Italy. He was music director of the Teatro Regio in Turin for three years. From 1987 to 1993, he was music director of Scottish Opera.

His American posts include the music directorship of Pittsburgh Opera from 2000 to 2006. He was principal conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra from 1991 to 2006. He currently holds the title of Founding Director of the orchestra. In 2007, he was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame alongside Plácido Domingo.

In May 2006, the University of North Carolina named Mauceri as the seventh Chancellor of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. He assumed the post on July 1, 2006, and Pittsburgh Opera released Mauceri early from his contract to allow him to take up this post.

Mauceri's commercial recordings include George Gershwin's Strike Up The Band, for Nonesuch. In 2006, Mauceri conducted the Nashville Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in a concert performance of Porgy and Bess that featured cuts and other changes that Gershwin himself had made in the opera during rehearsals leading up to its premiere by the Theatre Guild. This performance was released on CD, the first recording of the opera in this version.

In other media, Mauceri had a small role as the character Claude Maginot in 2002's Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. He appeared briefly as himself in the second episode of the Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip TV series, conducting the fictional "West Coast Philharmonic."

Prior to his current appointment, Mauceri served as the music director of four opera companies: Teatro Regio in Turin, Italy, the Scottish Opera in Glasgow, the Washington Opera at the Kennedy Center and the Pittsburgh Opera. He was also the first music director of the American Symphony Orchestra in Carnegie Hall after its founding director, Leopold Stokowski, with whom he studied. His other mentors included Carlo Maria Giulini and Leonard Bernstein, with whom he worked for eighteen years.

Mauceri is well known throughout the world as the Director of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra in Los Angeles, which was created for him in 1991 by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association. At the Hollywood Bowl, he conducted over 300 concerts over 16 seasons. He now has the title of founding director of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, and recently returned to the Bowl Orchestra to make his debut at Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA.

Mauceri has conducted most of the world's leading orchestras and opera companies and is one of the world's most accomplished recording artists. He is the recipient of Grammy, Tony, Olivier, Drama Desk, Edison, two Emmy and four Deutsche Schallplatten awards, among other prestigious recognitions.