Audrey Lipsey

Crescendo Academy of Music

Executive Director

Audrey Lipsey has been teaching violin for over 45 years and has been the Executive Director of Crescendo Academy of Music since 2000. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Western Michigan University with post-graduate study at the University of Michigan. Ms. Lipsey is the former Associate Concertmaster of the Battle Creek Symphony Orchestra and retired Assistant Concertmaster of the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra. She performs with the Opus IV String Quartet and Renaissance Strings.

Ms. Lipsey is a well-known educator in the Kalamazoo area having taught in early childhood settings for 18 years after teaching strings in the South Haven Public Schools for eight years. In addition to her private studio, she serves as the conductor of the Kalamazoo Junior Symphony Preparatory and Training Orchestras. 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 music education. In 2018, she was awarded the Gayle Hoogstraten Arts Leadership Award from the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo for her years of leadership at Crescendo Academy of Music.