The recipient of a 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant, American violist Matthew Lipman has been hailed by the New York Times for his "rich tone and elegant phrasing" and by the Chicago Tribune for his "splendid technique and musical sensitivity”. As one of the most sought after and promising proponents of his instrument,  Lipman’s engagements as soloist have included the Juilliard, Minnesota, Grand Rapids Symphony, Wisconsin Chamber, Ars Viva Symphony, Montgomery Symphony, Capital City Symphony and Southwest Symphony Orchestras, and as recitalist, the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C., and the ShortGrass Festival in New Mexico in halls across America including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Alice Tully Hall and the Morgan Library in New York.

His debut recording of the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante with violinist Rachel Barton Pine, Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields was released by Avie Records in January 2015, to critical acclaim and skyrocketed to #3 on the Billboard Classical chart.

The Daily Telegraph declared that “Chicago-born viola-player Matthew Lipman, still in his early 20s and gifted with poise and a warmth of timbre, ideally complements the allure of the set [of Mozart concertos] as a whole.”

Highlights of Lipman’s performances in the 2014-15 season include Britten’s Double Concerto in Madison, WI, solo recitals at the ShortGrass Festival and Clark Arts Center Series in the Hamptons, collaborations with Leon Fleisher at the Caramoor Center for Music and Arts and the Orion String Quartet and the Bill T. Jones Dance Company in Central Park, a highly successful research fundraiser for the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center at Carnegie Hall, a live solo WQXR broadcast at the Greene Space in New York, and for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, a lauded last-minute stand in for Lawrence Power at Alice Tully Hall in New York and the Harris Theater in Chicago, a residency in Hawaii with exciting young violinist Chad Hoopes, and a three continent tour with David Finckel and Wu Han that culminates in a Wigmore Hall debut and the world premier of Helen Grime’s Aviary Sketches in London.

Lipman was the only violist recently featured on WFMT Chicago’s list of “30 Under 30” top international classical musicians, along the likes of Nicola Benedetti, Yuja Wang, Daniil Trifonov, and others, and will soon have a three-page profile spread published in Strad Magazine highlighting practice habits. He has been featured multiple times on From the Top, an NPR weekly showcase of talented young musicians, and its PBS spinoff at Carnegie Hall. A new music enthusiast,  Lipman performed Krzysztof Penderecki’s Cadenza for Solo Viola on a live WQXR broadcast with the composer himself in attendance to celebrate his 80th birthday, and has premiered viola works by Peter Maxwell Davies and others. He also worked closely with American composer David Ludwig on his piano quartet, Aria Fantasy (2013), from its world premier at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago to a groundbreaking cultural exchange initiative and series of performances in Havana, Cuba.

A dedicated chamber musician, Lipman is a founding member of Málaga#Clásica, an electrifying new chamber music festival in Málaga, Spain, and will perform this July at Kissinger Sommer, a prestigious international music festival in Bad Kissingen, Germany. The winner of the CMS2 auditions, he will start a three-year residency next season with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Additionally,  Lipman has made many appearances at the Marlboro Music Festival, Ravinia Festival, Perlman Music Program, and the Music@Menlo Summer Festival along with its Winter Residency, and he has previously collaborated with such renowned artists as Miriam Fried, Gary Hoffman, Ani and Ida Kavafian, Itzhak Perlman, and members of the Cleveland, Emerson, and Guarneri Quartets.

Lipman is the First Prize winner of the Washington, Stulberg, and Johansen International String Competitions, the Minnesota Orchestra and Juilliard Young Artist Concerto Competitions, and is a top laureate of the Tertis and Primrose International Viola Competitions. He was the recipient of a Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award and during his undergraduate degree, a Presser Scholar Award.

Born in Chicago in 1992, Lipman began music at the age of ten, studying with Matthew Mantell and later Roland Vamos at the Music Institute of Chicago. A proud recipient of the inaugural Kovner Fellowship at the Juilliard School, he has studied with Heidi Castleman, for whom he serves as teaching assistant, Misha Amory, and Steven Tenenbom, and has worked closely with Nobuko Imai, Kim Kashkashian, and Thomas Riebl. Mr. Lipman performs on a fine 1700 Matteo Goffriller on generous loan from the REB Foundation.