In Thursday’s (7/22) Boston Globe, Robert Knox writes, “Dressed as a French chef, Charles Blondin walked halfway across a tightrope over Niagara Falls in 1860, then sat down while he cooked and ate an omelet. Then he got up and walked 1,100 feet back to the Canadian side. The aerialist is the main character in an opera being created by Ronald G. Vigue, a composer, arts administrator, and new executive director of the [Hingham, Massachusetts-based] Atlantic Symphony Orchestra. Vigue doesn’t exactly walk a tightrope to balance his careers, but he acknowledges that many people find it a stretch. … Vigue had the mix of qualities the orchestra was looking for, said board and search committee member Roy Harris of Hingham, ‘someone with experience running an arts organization successfully—a symphony would be a dream—and Boston-area roots.’… For the last four years, Vigue was executive director of Philadelphia’s Orchestra 2001, founded two decades ago to perform new music. During his tenure, the ensemble set attendance and fund-raising records, and Vigue played an important role in its Carnegie Hall debut and Grammy Award nomination, according to the Atlantic Symphony. Before that, he managed the Boston Camerata, one of the nation’s premier early-music ensembles.”
Posted July 22, 2010
