Audrey Lipsey

Audrey Lipsey has been teaching violin for over 45 years and has been the Executive Director of
Crescendo Music Academy since 2000. She formerly served as Associate Concertmaster for the
Battle Creek Symphony Orchestra. She has retired as Assistant Concertmaster of the Kalamazoo
Symphony Orchestra and as first violinist of the Opus IV String Quartet and the Renaissance
Strings.

Ms. Lipsey is a well-known educator in the area and serves as the conductor of the Kalamazoo
Junior Symphony Preparatory and Training Orchestras. She taught in early childhood settings for
18 years after teaching strings in the South Haven Public School system for eight years. For her
significant contributions to music education, Ms. Lipsey was awarded the Community Medal of
Arts from the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo in 2002; the Mary McLeod Bethune
Communication, Arts, & Letters Award from the Kalamazoo Alumni Chapter of Delta Sigma
Theta Sorority in 2003; and the Prism Award for Excellence in Music Education from the
Kalamazoo Alumni Chapter of Sigma Alpha Iota Professional Women’s Music Fraternity, Inc. in
2006. In 2012 she was presented with a Woman of Achievement Award from the YWCA of
Kalamazoo for her years of dedication to the education of area youth. Ms. Lipsey has a B.A.
from, Western Michigan University. She has done graduate work at the University of Michigan
and holds Certification as a Child Development Associate.