Not too many local musicians have memories of playing with two legendary American innovators and composers, but Ron Lipscomb, who died on Jan.14 of age-related ailments at age 81, performed with musicians whose work is still being heard all over the world.
“Playing under Duke Ellington was like a dream,” Lipscomb, who lived on Bryan Street in Mt. Airy for several years and on Morris Street in Germantown for several years before that, told the Local in 2020. “Playing under a living legend like Duke Ellington is a memory l will forever cherish. And playing under Leonard Bernstein was so unique. He worked himself into the same emotional state for every performance of Mahler's Fifth Symphony and Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony!”
Lipscomb, who grew up near Fairmount Park at Belmont and Parkside avenues, was fortunate because in his youth, children actually had an opportunity to start music lessons in public elementary school, a “frill” that has pretty much disappeared. He enjoyed those lessons so much that he began taking additional classes at Queen Street Settlement Music School at age 12.
"The cello was an instrument that became available to me,” he said, “and despite its size, I liked the beautiful sound of it. It’s one of the instruments closest to being a human voice. I love that.”
Lipscomb went to Shoemaker Junior High and Central High School (216th graduating class), but it was not until he attended the University of Iowa that he decided to become a musician, studying the cello with Paul Olefsky, which continued when he attended Temple University for two years. He then went to the Manhattan School of Music to study with Bernard Greenhouse of the Beaux Arts Trio.
“What a great teacher and gentleman he was,” Lipscomb said. “I owe so much to him. With his help, I went to study with Pierre Fournier in Switzerland for six months. While in London, I hung out with members of the Guarneri String Quartet and met Daniel Barenboim (world-renowned pianist and conductor) and Jackie Du Pre (one of the world's greatest cellists). Those were definitely great times!”
After four years at the Manhattan School of Music, Ron played in the Symphony of the New World, conducted by Duke Ellington, when Ron was interviewed for a New York Times article in 1967 about racial discrimination in the world of classical music.
Then 24, Lipscomb was quoted in the New York Times as saying he appreciated the effort to extend the musical franchise to Black musicians, but “…this should be seen for what it is: a middle-class operation with integrationalist ideals, having no relation whatsoever to the mass of Black people.”
It is important to note that the Philadelphia Orchestra under the directorship of Eugene Ormandy did not integrate until 1970, when the maestro finally hired two African-American musicians, a violinist and violist, to join the 103 full-time orchestra members. At that time, Lipscomb was playing in orchestras and working in recording studios, even performing as a substitute in the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. He went on a tour to New Zealand, Australia and Japan under Leonard Bernstein’s direction and another tour to Scandinavia and Russia, and he played with the American Symphony under the world-famous conductor Leopold Stokowski.
While at the Manhattan School of Music, Lipscomb was in a summer program studying under another legend, cellist Pablo Casals. “That was truly inspiring,” Lipscomb said. “He was 87 when I studied with him. Thirty years dropped off him when he picked up the cello … That was an amazing experience. I wanted to study with him in Puerto Rico, but Martina (his wife) was very protective. I would have loved to spend even more time with Pablo Casals. He was such a seminal musician and person of integrity.”
In addition to classical music legends, Lipscomb has performed and recorded with many celebrity entertainers and singers, including Frank Sinatra, Gladys Knight, Isaac Hayes, Marvin Gaye and Sammy Davis, Jr., and he recorded with James Brown for his “Live at the Apollo, Volume II.”
Cindy Barber, of the Deliverance Evangelist Church in North Philadelphia, wrote in an online tribute, “Ron Lipscomb was the nicest person, humble and an incredible cellist. A very instrumental part of the mini-orchestra we had at the church.”
Bruce Yasgur, who was in Lipscomb's class at Central High School, told us, “Ron was well liked by all who knew him, including those of us who knew him as a classmate and friend and had little knowledge that he was a cellist of universal renown.”
Funeral services for Lipscomb were held Jan. 27 at the Household of Faith Deliverance Worship Center in Ardmore. Suzanne Cloud contributed to this article. Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com
