Books

The Mostly Mozart Guide to Mozart (2009)
More info at WILEY
"Vigeland offers a brief biography of Mozart followed by a larger section devoted to his oeuvre. The author chooses among his favorite pieces and lists his favorite recordings; the book's longest and most satisfying section is an analysis of Mozart's operas. Vigeland avoids musical examples and employs a jargon-free, conservational style. He includes entertaining sidebars and commentary from such musicians as Emanuel Ax, Placido Domingo, and Aaron Copland. Vigeland writes in such a compelling way that amateurs will be immediately drawn in to this slim volume. Professional musicians will enjoy his personal reflections and incisive commentary."
—Library Journal

Jazz in the Bittersweet Blues of Life (with Wynton Marsalis) (2001)
Visit the Perseus Books Group Mini-Site for an excerpt from the book and bonus material.
"American jazz sweetheart Marsalis gives readers a seat on his old septet's tour bus for a ride down memory lane. It's the early 1990s, and the trumpeter is coming into his own as a composer, despite his tight road schedule (check-in at hotel, go to sound check, eat supper, iron the suit, play the gig, snooze a bit, hit the road). Should a day off (or a few free hours) arise, he's speaking at a local school, composing a ballet, recording an album or playing a ballad to his sons on the phone. "He'd take his naps in the next life," writes coauthor Vigeland, who tagged along on tour. Marsalis's productivity and growth during this period would lead to nine Grammys, a Pulitzer (previously awarded only to classical composers) and his directorship of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. Loosely using a sort of call-and-response style, the book swings between Vigeland's (Stalking the Shark: Passion and Pressure on the Pro Golf Tour) fly-on-the-wall documentation and the poetic solos of Marsalis, philosophizing on jazz, joy, love and lifeall synonymous for him. "The narrative's logic is one of feeling, not geography or chronology, and it develops accretively, elliptically," explains Vigeland. At their best, the authors show how Marsalis's road experiences shape his music and the tightness (musically and personally) of the septet. The glimpse into Marsalis's New Orleans upbringing in that famous first family of jazz (Ellis, his father, and Branford, his brother) fascinates."
—Perseus Books

In Concert: Onstage and Offstage with the Boston Symphony Orchestra
1989
Click for more information on the on-demand version of this book.
“An absolutely fascinating book dealing with tension — artistic, musical, and personal tension between the first trumpet player of one of the most venerable orchestras in the country and the conductor, Seiji Ozawa. Music is the background, but the theme is really a conflict of two people with two completely different approaches to art — and to life.”
— Studs Terkel

"Demystifying and humanizing the august Boston Symphony Orchestra--and expertly discussing, as the book's leitmotif, the intricacies of Mahler Two, a BSO specialty--Vigeland presents such an agreeable portrait that he makes the reader want to subscribe to the orchestra's upcoming season. A keen observer, and perhaps more of a tattletale than certain BSO members will like, the author takes us through the 1986-1987 season at Symphony Hall and concerts at Tanglewood (Mass.), Connecticut and Washington, D.C. Primarily, we follow slightly paranoid principal trumpet Charlie Schlueter and his strained relationship with music director Seiji Ozawa, who is not given to fraternizing with the musicians. We also meet concertmaster Malcolm Lowe, orchestra manager Anne Parsons, choral director John Oliver; learn about union problems; sit in on auditions; witness the intensity of rehearsals. Vigeland ( How Harvard Makes Its Money ) 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."
—Publishers Weekly

Letters to a Young Golfer (with Bob Duval) (2002)

More info at Perseus Books

"The emphasis on developing a routine, moving forward, playing the hand dealt you, makes a whole lot of sense. And our new knowledge about Duval definitely puts the importance of a game of golf into mighty perspective."
— Kirkus Reviews

"Duval has proven adept as an author... The book is a series of letters written by Duval in retrospective the past nine months, which give candid insight of the travails in his life."
— Pensacola News Journal

Stalking the Shark: Pressure & Passion on the Pro Golf Tour (1997) Read an Excerpt

"A fine book."
—Herbert Warren Wind

"A neatly crafted account of life on the PGA Tour."
—Alex Beam, The Boston Globe

"Many a complaint has been voiced about pro golfers of the post-Palmer-Nicklaus-Trevino era, the most frequent one being that they are colorless. But that objection does not apply to one player, Greg Norman, the crowd-pleasing Aussie nicknamed the Great White Shark. The problem with the excitement he generates, however, is that it is based on the cliff-hanger quality of his play-he has more one-stroke second-place finishes than any other active pro, some of them detailed here. Interspersed between revealing short takes from Norman himself, titled "Sharkbites," are chapters by freelance golf writer Vigeland, who while keeping his chief subject in focus writes as much about the pro tour and other players such as Nick Price and Brad Faxon."
--Publishers Weekly

Great Good Fortune: How Harvard Makes Its Money
1986

"[An] intricate and engaging account...penetrating"
—The Washington Post

"Written by a 1969 Harvard alumnus, this book examines how the "oldest corporation in America" acquires and distributes its endowment and annual budget. Chapters focus on sketches of university adminstrators, the elaborate alumni fund campaigns, and the unheralded but powerful Harvard Management Company, which oversees the university's vast portfolio."
--Library Journal

Selected Articles

A New Horn
The Atlantic Monthly, November, 1999

What was that odd-looking brass instrument you saw in a jazz club or at the symphony? It was David Monette's reinvention of the trumpet.
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A Mower of Lawns
The New York Times, 1985

Our house sits on a hill, with the remains of an old barn still attached to the back...
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Golf Course
Fast Company, Number 8, April 1997

Butch Harmon, guru to Tiger Woods, teaches that winning is all in your head -- in golf or in business.
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Silva’s Greens
Continental Magazine, February 2004

On a chilly day, when everyone else is wearing sweaters or jackets, golf course architect Brian Silva, 50, is ready to tee off in Bermuda shorts. That he can and does wear shorts to work is one of several dozen reasons why the energetic, effusive 1999 Golf World Architect of the Year loves his job.
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Chasing ghost of his youth on a snowboard
The Daily Hampshire Gazette, March 4, 2004

Long ago, before I lived here and before I had started skiing, I visited Haystack Mountain in southern Vermont with some friends on a hike. Standing at the bottom of its main slope, following with my eyes the line of its old two-seater chairlift, I was transfixed.
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Amherst's beloved Julius the Tailor
The Daily Hampshire Gazette, April 11, 2006

The notice was just six short paragraphs under a headline that identified him as a ''longtime tailor in Amherst.'' But the life of Julius Muskus, the subject of the obituary in Thursday's Gazette, belonged on the front page.
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