The North Carolina School of the Arts was recently at a defining moment in its 40-year history.  The school had been born through the creative political energy of Terry Sanford that brought to life the vision of John Ehle. The people of Winston-Salem embraced it and the early founding families, the Semanses, the Moores, the Kenanses, and the Haneses, nurtured it in the founding years in order to bring the high standards of the first chancellor, Vittorio Giannini, into fruition.

Our early leaders developed a distinguished faculty over the years, and attracted passionate students from throughout the United States. We became internationally noted through our touring programs. Then, recently, the University system, legislators and people of North Carolina recommitted to us through capital appropriations and the bond issue. They built our beautiful campus infrastructure that we see here today. We had matured as an institution from an adolescent into one who was about to enter adulthood.

We had all the ingredients in place for unparalleled success except we needed a new chancellor to set the course. But a critical crossroads was before us: Do we hold true to the original vision of an artistic community led by artists training artists for the future? This experiment was unique in public higher education. Or do we become a more traditional institution like our sister campuses?

Upon introspection by our trustees, faculty, students, staff and the Winston-Salem community at large, the answer was resounding: We wanted to return to our roots by having a practicing artist establish our vision and direction and lead us boldly forward. We chose to follow Terry Sanford’s original charge to have an unorthodox institution in an artistic way, of course. The consensus was that this was probably the most important chancellor hiring since the founding of the school.

In our search process, we varied from the norm, to say the least. I charged a group to use their extensive experience and contacts to identify the very best person in the world for this position. We would pursue them knowing our chance of success was small.  But, we wanted to strive only for the best and not what was readily available. 

Our quest led us to the Hollywood Bowl and John Mauceri as our target. Through luck, persuasion, and old personal relationships, we convinced the Mauceris to visit us. The charm of Winston-Salem and the magic of this hill filled with passionate students bewitched John and Betty into considering a major change in their lives. We wanted them to join us. Then, the courageous leadership of President Erskine Bowles led to his formal hiring.

So John, Betty, the University of North Carolina system, our school community, Winston-Salem, and our state and nation, we are starting our quest to achieve the true potential of this unique school -- to train the premier artists of the future in a public environment with a holistic approach to art and life itself. We know it will not be without challenges. For artistic expression is messy. People relating their human experience to others through varied media is never easy. Since we have the young artist-in-training -- as Robert Frost said, “We are entrusted when they first express their passionate preference in life.” But we have found a leader in John Mauceri who has traveled this artist’s path at the highest levels in all of our disciplines. He is truly a Renaissance man.

We are now ready for our new chancellor to take this young institution into an adulthood that could only have been dreamed of 40 years ago. So, John, your charge is:

• To lead this school into finding its true potential;
• To give our young artists an example to emulate;
• To be our ambassador throughout the artistic world.

Our founding chancellor, Vittorio Giannini, must be smiling somewhere up there today, as we begin this journey.

So to my favorite maestro, Godspeed.

April 3, 2007