With Rory and Victoria in park near Mountain View, CA, 2025
Larry Lipkis was born in 1951 and attended UCLA as an undergraduate from 1969 to 1973, where he studied composition with Professors Paul Reale and Alden Ashforth. He received a master’s degree in 1975 at the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied with George Rochberg. He received a Ph.D. from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1984.
Larry is Composer-in-Residence and Bertha Mae Starner ‘27 and Jay F. Starner Professor of Music at Moravian University in Bethlehem, PA. He has composed multiple compositions for a variety of vocal and instrumental ensembles, including three concerti based on Commedia dell’Arte characters—Harlequin, Scaramouche, and Pierrot– which have been performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, and Lehigh Valley Chamber Orchestra. In August of 2025, four of his “commedia concerti” were recorded by the Lviv National Phiharmonic Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, and released in the spring of 2026 on the Naxos American Classics label. Also in the spring of 2026, he celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Early Music program at Moravian, which he founded in 1976.
Larry’s two chamber operas Peronelle and Simonetta are based on the lives and loves of two medieval/Renaissance artistic luminaries—Guillaume de Machaut and Sandro Botticelli. The Botticelli opera—Simonetta–was premiered in New York City in September 2022 by the American Chamber Opera Company, to rave reviews.
Since 1986, Larry has been a member of the Baltimore Consort, an internationally acclaimed early music ensemble specializing in popular music of the Renaissance and Baroque eras. The group has made seventeen recordings on the Dorian & Sono Luminus labels and maintains an active touring schedule.
Larry has served on the faculty of Early Music Week at Pinewoods, a music and dance camp near Plymouth, MA, the Viola da Gamba Society of American annual conclave, and is also a faculty member of the Amherst Early Music Festival.
He is a member of the Education and Community Engagement Committee of the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, where he directs the “Chaconne Project,” composition workshops and other musical activities for youth. He has lectured on the topics of Bach and Rhetoric, Bach and Baroque Dance at the NEH Summer Scholars Institute in Leipzig, Germany and in Bethlehem.
He is also a music director of the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival and the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Lehigh Valley.
Larry has been married to Linda since 1988 and they have two children: Julia (born 1993) who lives in Philadelphia, and Rory (born 1997) who lives in Mountain View CA. He can reached via his website: larrylipkis.com or via email: lipkisl@moravian.edu