An un-bylined article in Friday’s (3/5) Melrose Free Press (Massachusetts) states, “ ‘Thirty years of involvement in any organization is wonderful, and I feel very privileged to have been involved for all those years.’ So says Millie Rich, the local name that’s long been synonymous with the Melrose Symphony Orchestra (MSO), who is publicly announcing her retirement from the position of president and CEO of the Melrose Orchestral Association, the MSO’s board of directors, which oversees the city’s much-loved orchestra. Rich’s retirement officially takes effect in May, after the ‘May Pops’ concert on Saturday, May 1, which marks the conclusion of the MSO’s 92nd season.” When Rich first joined the orchestra as vice president in charge of the program booklet, she “owned Chandelier Books on West Foster Street in Melrose, and the bookstore quickly became the MSO’s ticket site. … ‘And people came in and were inundated because I talked symphony excessively—and nothing has changed in 30 years!’ … In 1997, after a search for a new conductor for the symphony, a young conductor named Yoichi Udagawa was hired. And neither Rich nor Udagawa has looked back since.”
Posted March 5, 2010
