In Thursday’s (3/21) Lexington Herald Leader (Kentucky), Walter Tunis writes, “At the end of a paragraph-long greeting on his website, Chelsea Tipton II offers this succinct but highly expressive summation of the three-plus seasons he has spent as conductor and music director of the Symphony of Southeast Texas: ‘I am so digging the journey.’ The remark might just as readily apply to the breadth of Tipton’s career, which stretches from a seven-year association as resident conductor of the Toledo Symphony in Ohio to a European orchestral tour with pop impresario Sting to a lengthy list of guest-conducting performances that teams him Friday with the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra for a program that bridges Europe with South America. … The focus of his work with the Symphony of Southeast Texas in Beaumont has turned into something of a mission, with Tipton spending considerable time off the podium taking music into schools and communities. It’s an outreach shared by many orchestra leaders around the country, including Lexington Philharmonic conductor and music director Scott Terrell. ‘The role of a music director—and Maestro Terrell is certainly of the same ilk that I am—is that we have to get out into the community and get to know the community,’ Tipton said. ‘That is absolutely paramount.’ ”
Posted March 22, 2013
