ANN ARBOR, Mich. April 5, 2005– Dr. Carolyn Lipp, professor of music, gave her final bow to a standing ovation at her harpsichord faculty recital on March 11, 2005. Lipp will retire this June after serving the University for 35 years. The recital was her last as a full time faculty member.
Lipp, who teaches piano and harpsichord, may be retiring from her full time duties but will continue to teach piano at Concordia as an adjunct instructor.
“I don’t feel that I’m retiring,” said Lipp, who also teaches the Ethnomusicology and Living with the Arts classes. “I’m just doing a different focus on the same job. I’ll be able to still teach at Concordia, but teach what I’m best at - teaching my college kids how to play piano and how to be a good pianist.”
“She’s enormously talented,” said Dr. Laura Bird, associate professor of theatre. “And she really has worked hard with her piano students to take them from where they are and bring them to a higher level. I think the news that she’s staying to teach adjunct piano is very welcome to her piano students because they really connect with her and learn well from her.”
"I was never planning on taking piano lessons in college,” said Julie Hooper, a senior from Flint, Michigan, “but Dr. Lipp got me hooked again. She has been a wonderful teacher and friend, and I'm very glad she will still be here next year as an adjunct."
Not only has Lipp had an impact on her students, but on her fellow colleagues as well.
“She’s been a valued member of the [humanities] department,” said Bird. “I also think the quality of her performances are something we’ve come to take for granted because they are of such a consistent high quality. The work she’s done, especially with the pre-service music for the Boar’s Head Festival and this year with her performance of the Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 at the Bach Concert, has been truly amazing."
Lipp began her teaching career in 1967 at Concordia College in Seward, Nebraska but left after three years to teach at the Ann Arbor campus. She received her Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from the Eastman School of Music, a Master of Music in Piano Performance from Michigan State University, a Master of Music in Chamber Music and Accompanying from the University of Michigan and in 2001 she completed her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Harpsichord Performance from the University of Michigan.
Lipp plans to use her free time after retiring to open her own studio, practice harpsichord and perhaps do some solo recording.
“What I really want to do, what I love to do, is teach piano and practice harpsichord.”
Concordia University – Ann Arbor is a liberal arts institution of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. With a distinctly Christian environment and an academic community dedicated to excellence, CUAA offers a broad range of undergraduate and graduate degree programs through its four schools – School of Arts and Sciences, School of Education, Haab School of Business and Management, and School of Adult and Continuing Education. CUAA is accredited by NCA, the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, and was among the first colleges to be accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) under the new 2000 standards.
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