USC Trojan Family Magazine - Winter 1998: The Lipsett Proteges: Elizabeth Pitcairn '97

ELIZABETH PITCAIRN served for two years as the USC Symphony Orchestra concertmaster, and now she’s embarking on a solo career. Her first recording, with the Slovenia Radio and Television Orchestra, playing the Tchai-kovsky Concerto in D Major and the Mozart Concerto in A Major, is about to be released. She comes from a musical family in Bucks County, Pennsylvania – her mother a cellist, her father a rare corporate executive with perfect pitch. “He worked for many years as a recording engineer,” she says.
Pitcairn, 24, has studied with Robert Lipsett for seven years. “He’s very thorough,” she says.
“He leaves nothing to chance. He teaches you how to prepare all the way up to the point where you’re in the dressing room before the performance.” Now, she refines her skills in the heated atmosphere of national and international competitions. Last summer she went to Moscow to compete in the Tchaikovsky Competition. She has won, among others, the Debut Orchestra Competition and the Philadelphia Orchestra Competition, and she has soloed with a variety of orchestras, including the Philadelphia, the National Repertoire Orchestra and the Debut Orchestra.




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		ELIZABETH PITCAIRN served for two years as the USC Symphony Orchestra concertmaster, and now she’s embarking on a solo career. Her first recording, with the Slovenia Radio and Television Orchestra, playing the Tchai-kovsky Concerto in D Major and the Mozart Concerto in A Major, is about to be released. She comes from a musical family in Bucks County, Pennsylvania – her mother a cellist, her father a rare corporate executive with perfect pitch. “He worked for many years as a recording engineer,” she says. Pitcairn, 24, has studied with Robert Lipsett for seven years. “He’s very thorough,” she says. “He leaves nothing to chance. He teaches you how to prepare all the way up to the point where you’re in the dressing room before the performance.” Now, she refines her skills in the heated atmosphere of national and international competitions. Last summer she went to Moscow to compete in the Tchaikovsky Competition. She has won, among others, the Debut Orchestra Competition and the Philadelphia Orchestra Competition, and she has soloed with a variety of orchestras, including the Philadelphia, the National Repertoire Orchestra and the Debut Orchestra.

Photograph by Debra DiPaolo
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