Office of the President/Chancellor Records: Vittorio Giannini

Vittorio Giannini was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on October 19, 1903. His father, Feruccio Giannini, was an operatic tenor singer and conductor, and mother Antonietta a concert violinist. Vittorio and his sisters, Eufemia and Dusolina, each saw successful international musical careers. His brother, Francis, pursued a career in medicine.

As a young boy, Giannini’s mother trained him privately on violin, and at the age of nine was awarded a scholarship to study at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan, Italy. In 1925, after years of private study, he returned to the United States to complete his education at the Juilliard School of Music. Juilliard awarded him fellowships in violin and composition, and in 1932 Giannini won the Grand Prix de Rome in composition, affording him four years of study at the American Academy in Rome.

In the late 1930s, after returning to the United States, Giannini taught at Queens College in New York City, the Julius Hartt School in Hartford, Connecticut, and the Philadelphia Musical Academy. In 1939 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music Degree from New York College of Music, where he was teaching at the time. That same year he joined the faculty at Julliard and would go on to join the Manhattan School of Music in 1941 and the Curtis Institute in 1956. He served as Dean of the Advanced Division at Brevard Music Center before beginning his tenure as first president of the North Carolina School of the Arts in 1964.

In the summer of 1962, North Carolina Governor Terry Sanford met with Giannini to discuss the idea of a publicly funded conservatory in his state. Giannini was a lifelong promotor of conservatory education for young musicians and wanted to see the tradition grow in the United States. After listening to Giannini’s proposal, Sanford appointed a Governor’s Commission, the North Carolina Conservatory Committee, to conduct a feasibility study. The commission expanded the original music conservatory concept to include the performing arts of dance and drama. After considerable lobbying, the state legislature passed a bill establishing the North Carolina School of the Arts on June 21, 1963.

Giannini was officially appointed the school’s first President on April 29, 1964. His three nieces, Christina, Evadne, and Maura, accompanied him to Winston-Salem. Christina was hired as the first costume designer at NCSA, while her two sisters enrolled in the high school program.

Giannini died unexpectedly in November 1966, only three months into NCSA’s second year. Dr. Louis Mennini, then Dean of Music, was appointed acting President while a search committee formed to look for a successor. The search committee appointed Dr. Robert Ward to succeed Giannini beginning in the 1967-1968 school year.

Sources:

• Banner, Leslie. 1987. A Passionate Preference. Asheboro: Down Home Press.
• Simmons, Walter. “Vittorio Giannini”. All Music. Accessed 20 November 2019 from https://www.allmusic.com/artist/vittorio-giannini-mn0002168575/biography.