Robert Lipsett

Robert Crawford Lipsett Jr. (born October 23, 1947) is a violin teacher in Los Angeles, California. He holds the Jascha Heifetz Distinguished Violin Chair at the Colburn School of Performing Arts. He also serves on the faculty at the Aspen School of Music, the Colburn Conservatory and the Colburn Academy. He has given master classes at major schools around the world.

Lipsett was born in Louisville, Kentucky. He has a younger brother named Stephen James Lipsett, a successful real estate investor/broker living on Lake Granbury, Texas. As a child, he moved with his family to Dallas, Texas, where he began violin study with Zelman Brounoff and Ruth Lasley. The family subsequently lived in Saint Louis, Missouri, where Lipsett's violin instructor was Melvin Ritter. He graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Music and later studied with Ivan Galamian at The Juilliard School and with Endre Granat. He also earned a B.A. in Music from California State University, Northridge.

Lipsett's students have consistently won important competitions including the Julius Stulberg Awards, the Yehudi Menuhin and Irving M. Klein International Violin Competitions, and several have received highest honors from the National Association for the Advancement of the Arts, and been recognized as Presidential Scholars. He is a recipient of the Distinguished Teachers Award from the White House Commission for Presidential Scholars. He is also a freelance commercial musician in motion pictures, television and the recording industry.

Students

• Robert Chen, Concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony
• Sheryl Staples, Principal Associate Concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic
• Steven Copes, Concertmaster of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
• Michelle Kim, Assistant Concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic
• Tamaki Kawakubo, concert artist
• Hahn-Bin, concert artist
• Leila Josefowicz, concert artist
• Lindsay Deutsch, concert artist
• Jennifer Frautschi, concert artist
• Elbert Tsai, San Francisco Ballet and Symphony
• Zlata Grekov, concert artist
• Ken Hamao, concert artist
• Samuel Fischer, teacher at the Colburn School of Performing Arts
• Kevin Amann, concert artist, (first student)
• Elise Goodman
• Rachel Stegeman (Ray Ray), Concertmaster, Wheeling Symphony and Youngstown Symphony; Faculty, Duquesne University
• Elizabeth Pitcairn, concert artist and Artistic Director of the Luzerne Music Center
• Amy Hershberger, Concertmaster, Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra; Assistant Concertmaster, Pasadena Symphony
• Simone Porter
• William Hagen
• Blake Pouliot
• Mayumi Kanagawa