Paul Max Tipton
Described by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as a dignified and beautiful singer, bass-baritone Paul Max Tipton enjoys an active career in opera, oratorio, and chamber music, performing and recording throughout North America, Europe, China, and Korea. A versatile singer, Mr. Tipton’s repertoire ranges from Schütz and Monteverdi to Britten and Bolcom, with his interpretations of the Bach Passions being acclaimed in particular for their strength and sensitivity. He has recently appeared with the symphonies of San Antonio, Grand Rapids, Lincoln, Stamford, CT, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and has performed with the New York Philharmonic as part of their first-ever Bach Festival.He has sung with New Trinity Baroque (Atlanta), The Lyra Baroque Orchestra, the Colorado Bach Ensemble, Seraphic Fire, The Rose Ensemble, the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, Carmel Bach Festival, Ensemble Florilege (Boston), the Yale Collegium Players, Conspirare, the Festival de Musica Barocca de San Miguel de Allende, Bach Society Houston, Bach Collegium San Diego, the Oregon Bach Festival, Emmanuel Music, Ars Lyrica, Tenet, Blue Heron Renaissance Choir, the Washington Bach Consort, debuted at Spoleto Festival USA in 2015, and has appeared with Cut Circle (Palo Alto) at early music festivals in Maastricht, Antwerp, and Utrecht.
He has enjoyed collaborations with Masaaki Suzuki, Matthias Pintscher, Craig Hella Johnson, Kenneth Slowik, Leonard Slatkin, Rubén Dubrovsky, Scott Allen Jarrett, Simon Carrington, Helmuth Rilling, Paul Hillier, Ricky Ian Gordon, Ted Taylor, Grant Llewellyn, and Nicholas McGegan. Highlights from current and recent seasons include Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Grand Rapids Symphony, Haydn’s Paukenmesse with the Yale Camerata, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio for the Discovery Series at the Oregon Bach Festival, and Handel’s Dettingen Te Deum at Carnegie Hall. He sang the role of Judas in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion under Helmuth Rilling at Carnegie Hall in 2007, and soloed under Leonard Slatkin on the Naxos recording of William Bolcom’s Songs of Innocence & of Experience, a project that won three Grammys in 2006. He has sung Schaunard with the New York Opera Society while on tour in Toulouse, and has worked closely with composer Ricky Ian Gordon, joining him twice in recital in Ann Arbor and Florence, Italy. Other repertoire has included Britten’s War Requiem, Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610, the title role in Mozart’s Don Giovanni with Martin Katz conducting, Haydn’s Salve Regina in G minor with Nicholas McGegan, baritone soloist in the 2012 Grammy-nominated recording of Brahms’s Requiem, Op. 45 with Seraphic Fire, and all of Bach’s motets with the Bach Collegium Japan at Woolsey Hall in New Haven.
He recently recorded Nicolaus Bruhns’s solo cantatas for bass for the BIS label, and has appeared in recital with Masaaki Suzuki. Current operatic credits include the role of Archibald Grosvenor in Patience with Odyssey Opera, Street Singer in Bernstein’s Mass with the Austin Symphony & Austin Opera, and Plutone in Monteverdi’s Orfeo with Göteborg Baroque in Sweden.Mr. Tipton trained on full fellowship at the University of Michigan School of Music in Ann Arbor, being mentored by mezzo-soprano Luretta Bybee, tenor George Shirley, and collaborative pianist Martin Katz. He is a 2010 graduate of the Yale University Institute of Sacred Music in Oratorio & Early Music, studying with tenor James Taylor. Based in Boston, he was made a Lorraine Hunt Lieberson Fellow at Emmanuel Music in 2012.