Carl Vigeland is an American writer and publisher who lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Carl Vigeland is an American writer and publisher who lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.
The son of musicians, Vigeland was born in Englewood, NJ, and spent his childhood in Buffalo, NY. He graduated from Harvard University cum laude (majoring in government) and later earned a master's degree in education from University of Massachusetts Amherst. He lived many years in Conway, MA, before moving to Amherst, MA where he and his family have resided since 1991. He is the brother of composer and pianist Nils Vigeland.
Vigeland began his writing career as a newspaper reporter and reviewer while freelancing for magazines. Vigeland worked at Amherst College from 1978–83, writing and editing several of the school’s publications, before leaving to write about the oldest corporation in America, Harvard University. His first book, Great Good Fortune: How Harvard Makes Its Money, was published by Houghton Mifflin Company in 1986.
An amateur pianist and trumpet player, and an expert skier and golfer, Vigeland has written on wide-ranging topics for such magazines as The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, The New Yorker, Boston Magazine, The Boston Globe Magazine, Conde Nast Traveler, Country Journal, DoubleTake, Downbeat, Fast Company, Golf Digest, Harvard, New England Monthly, The New York Times Magazine, Playboy, Sports Illustrated, and Yankee."
His second book, In Concert: Onstage and Offstage with the Boston Symphony Orchestra was published by William Morrow and Company in 1989. The book chronicles music director Seiji Ozawa, trumpeter Charlie Schlueter and the entire BSO throughout the 1986-1987 season. Publishers Weekly lauded the book for "demystifying and humanizing the august Boston Symphony Orchestra" and noted that "Vigeland is at his best in conveying the emotive power of music, making palpable the feelings of the musicians when a concert goes well and they are overwhelmed at the sound they have made." [1]
Vigeland taught writing for many years at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He was instrumental in developing courses at UMass for its award-winning Certificate in Online Journalism. He also taught journalism at Greenfield Community College, where for several years he was president of the Executive Committee of the Friends of the Archibald MacLeish Collection.
In 1994, W.W. Norton and Company published Vigeland's Stalking the Shark: Pressure & Passion on the Pro Golf Tour. Focusing on Greg Norman, the book explores what really separates the great golfer from the rest of the field.
In 2001, after a decade on the road with the jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, he collaborated with Marsalis on Jazz in the Bittersweet Blues of Life, [2] journaling life on the road, in the recording studio, and in concerts with Marsalis, his ensemble, and road crew in the early 1990s. Library Journal recommended the book, saying "This period saw Marsalis, currently director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, honing his chops at little clubs and composing songs. While not a traditional biography, this book provides a very real, personal glimpse of Marsalis, as both musician and man. Trumpeter and music writer Vigeland, who tagged along with the septet, here allows his coauthor's sense of humor to shine through. The book's film-inspired techniques make for an unpredictable, ever-evolving reading experience, and readers will come away with a feeling for life on the road, stripped of its many false stereotypes. [3] "
The next year, Vigeland returned to the subject of golf, collaborating with Bob Duval on Letters to a Young Golfer, published by Basic Books as part of their "The Art of Mentoring" series.
In 2009, Wiley published Vigeland's Mostly Mozart Guide to Mozart, a concise biography accompanied by insights into Mozart's most important works in a variety of genres.
Vigeland’s seventh book is The Breathless Present, published by Levellers Press in 2011. Both an autobiography and a road book, in The Breathless Present Vigeland shares portraits of an unusual grouping of people, ranging from an early mentor and one-time neighbor, the late poet Archibald MacLeish, to jazz great Wynton Marsalis, and the author's charismatic father, also a musician. The work tells several intersecting stories in a variety of voices that mirror music's power to transmute memory and affirm life.
Vigeland's latest books are Holy Ground,Symmetry,Walking Trane, and Ricochet. Other recent books are Jonathan's Sternberg, a biography of conductor and teacher Jonathan Sternberg, published in 2014, The Great Romance: The Sun Returns, Time Never, published in 2015, A Symphony for Shelbie and Dear President Trump: An Open Letter on Greatness, both published in 2019, and, with Archibald MacLeish, October Calf [2020].
In 2019, Vigeland began publishing books under the imprint, Combray House Books.
Wynton Learson Marsalis is an American trumpeter, composer, teacher, and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He has promoted classical and jazz music, often to young audiences. Marsalis has won nine Grammy Awards, and his Blood on the Fields was the first jazz composition to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. He is the only musician to win a Grammy Award in both jazz and classical during the same year.
Howard Chandler Robbins Landon was an American musicologist, journalist, historian and broadcaster, best known for his work in rediscovering the huge body of neglected music by Haydn and in correcting misunderstandings about Mozart.
Archibald MacLeish was an American poet and writer, who was associated with the modernist school of poetry. MacLeish studied English at Yale University and law at Harvard University. He enlisted in and saw action during the First World War and lived in Paris in the 1920s. On returning to the United States, he contributed to Henry Luce's magazine Fortune from 1929 to 1938. For five years, MacLeish was the ninth Librarian of Congress, a post he accepted at the urging of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. From 1949 to 1962, he was Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard. He was awarded three Pulitzer Prizes for his work.
Kathleen Deanna Battle is an American operatic soprano known for her distinctive vocal range and tone. Born in Portsmouth, Ohio, Battle initially became known for her work within the concert repertoire through performances with major orchestras during the early and mid-1970s. She made her opera debut in 1975. Battle expanded her repertoire into lyric soprano and coloratura soprano roles during the 1980s and early 1990s, until her eventual dismissal from the Metropolitan Opera in 1994. She later has focused on recording and the concert stage. After a 22-year absence from the Met, Battle performed a concert of spirituals at the Metropolitan Opera House in November 2016.
Jan Swafford is an American author and composer. He earned his Bachelor of Arts magna cum laude from Harvard College and his M.M.A. and D.M.A. from the Yale School of Music. His teachers included Earl Kim at Harvard, Jacob Druckman at Yale, and Betsy Jolas at Tanglewood. He has written respected musical biographies of Charles Ives, Johannes Brahms, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as well as the Vintage Guide to Classical Music. He appeared in the award-winning 2018 German documentary The Unanswered Ives.
Geoffrey Champion Ward is an American editor, author, historian and writer of scripts for American history documentaries for public television. He is the author or co-author of 19 books, including 10 companion books to the documentaries he has written. He is the winner of seven Emmy Awards.
David G. Monette is an American craftsman who designs and builds custom brass instruments and mouthpieces for musicians.
The Harvard Din & Tonics are a signature, five-part jazz a cappella group from Harvard University, founded in 1979.
Halsey Stevens was a music professor, biographer, and composer of American music.
The Art of Mentoring series is a series of books published by Basic Books from 2001 to 2008, beginning with Alan Dershowitz's Letters to a Young Lawyer and Christopher Hitchens' Letters to a Young Contrarian. The books were all titled in the form "Letters to a Young ____", in the spirit of Rainer Maria Rilke's book Letters to a Young Poet. They were meant to be relatively short guides to various occupations or life paths for someone starting out in that field, from the point of view of an expert.
Aaron Goldberg, is an American jazz pianist. Described by The New York Times as a "post-bop pianist of exemplary taste and range," Goldberg has released five albums as a solo artist and has performed and collaborated with Joshua Redman, Wynton Marsalis, Kurt Rosenwinkel, and Guillermo Klein, among others.
Irvin Mayfield Jr. is an American trumpeter, composer, bandleader and educator. On November 3, 2021, Mayfield was sentenced to 18 months in prison for defrauding the New Orleans public library system for over one million dollars.
Sunrise in Different Dimensions is a 1980 live jazz album by the Sun Ra Arkestra documenting a concert at the Gasthof Morhen in Willisau, Switzerland from February 24, 1980 which was released on the hat Hut label. The album intermingles a variety of Sun Ra originals with covers of jazz standards.
Charlie Banacos was an American pianist, composer, author and educator, concentrating on jazz.
Robert Hurst is an American jazz bassist.
Igor Butman PAR is a Russian jazz saxophonist born in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1961. Butman holds dual citizenship for both the US and Russian Federation. He is considered to be a virtuoso saxophonist, and a skilled bandleader.
Branford Marsalis is an American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. While primarily known for his work in jazz as the leader of the Branford Marsalis Quartet, he also performs frequently as a soloist with classical ensembles and has led the group Buckshot LeFonque. From 1992 to 1995 he led the Tonight Show Band.
Mark Sherman is a jazz vibraphonist, pianist, drummer, producer, arranger, author, and classical percussionist.
The Jazz Messengers were a jazz combo that existed for over thirty-five years beginning in the early 1950s as a collective, and ending when long-time leader and founding drummer Art Blakey died in 1990. Blakey led or co-led the group from the outset. "Art Blakey" and "Jazz Messengers" became synonymous over the years, though Blakey did lead non-Messenger recording sessions and played as a sideman for other groups throughout his career.
"Yes sir, I'm gonna to stay with the youngsters. When these get too old, I'm gonna get some younger ones. Keeps the mind active."
Robert Darrin Stewart is an American saxophonist. He recorded several albums under his own name during the period 1994–2006. He has also recorded as a sideman, including on trumpeter Wynton Marsalis' Blood on the Fields. Stewart went on multiple national and world tours during his 30-year career as a performer, both under his own name and with the Marsalis band.