The University of North Carolina School of the Arts' Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Chancellor John Mauceri, will perform Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 23, at the Heritage Ballroom, at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville. The concert is free and open to the public.

Mauceri, who became chancellor of UNCSA in 2006, is an internationally acclaimed conductor who has worked with the major orchestras and opera companies of the world.  As founding director of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, where he spent 16 years, he attracted more than four million people to his concerts. Most recently, he worked with performers such as Catherine Zeta-Jones, Hugh Jackman, Amy Adams, Kristin Chenoweth, Victor Garber at a fund-raiser for the Motion Picture & Television Fund in Los Angeles. 

The UNCSA Symphony Orchestra has produced many renowned musicians who perform in symphonies, chamber groups, opera companies and as solo artists around the nation and overseas. Five UNCSA alumni currently perform with the New York Philharmonic.

The University of North Carolina School of the Arts is the state’s only public arts conservatory, dedicated entirely to the professional training of talented students in dance, drama, music, film, and design and production. Approximately 1,100 students from across North Carolina and 45 other states and a dozen foreign countries are enrolled; they are selected by audition. For more information about the school, visit www.uncsa.edu.