Box Office and Database Manager

Ian Schipper

Ian Schipper is a bass-baritone who enjoys exploring the full range of emotions by performing a wide variety of art songs, oratorios, and operas. His favorite works span across time, from Gregorian chant to contemporary Jazz, JS Bach to Richard Strauss, and Handelian opera to Giuseppe Verdi. He was recently featured as the Bass Soloist for Bach’s St. John Passion, Christ lag in Todes Banden, and Magnificat with the St. Olaf Choral Ensembles. In the choral world, he has served as a staff singer at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland and All Saints Episcopal Church in Beverly Hills. He sings Bass with a number of choral groups, both in the Portland and Los Angeles areas. He also enjoys performing new compositions, as a founding member of St Olaf College’s composers’ choir, which provides a space for student composers to have their works performed and experiment within the choral style.

Ian earned a Masters Degree in Vocal Performance from the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, a Micromasters in Data. Economics, and Development Policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Bachelors degree in Music and Economics cum Laude from St. Olaf College. He is also an award-winning composer with Music Teachers National Association. Professionally, he has worked as a researcher in the fields of Economics and Medical Informatics, pioneering new ways to incorporate machine learning and artificial intelligence in everything from patient risk assessment to arts patron engagement.

Ian hails from Portland, Oregon, and enjoys hiking and backpacking around the Pacific Northwest. He is also a lifelong Tolkien fan, having read The Hobbit at least 30 times, and he can frequently be found carrying a “pocket version” of the Lord of the Rings. He’s particularly fond of the creation myth in The Silmarillion, detailing the creation of the world as though it were a composition of a new piece of music, with every being adding its own melody to the collective song. If that’s not an apt description of the world, he’s not sure what is.