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in
the

profile

[detroit]

Diaspora

Living globally,
rooted locally

Rachel Lipson: A WBHS teacher made an impact.

Editor’s note: This is the fi rst in a new series about
Detroiters living elsewhere, but still rooted in the D.

KAREN SCHWARTZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Rachel Lipson with her husband,
Kamali Robinson, and their sons
Henry, 1, and Maxwell, 3

10

February 2 • 2017

jn

If you know an expat Detroiter with strong ties or influences from the
D who could be featured, send an email to Karen Schwartz at
myfavoritemitten@gmail.com.

ISABELLE SELBY

R

achel Lipson, 35, moved to New York City nearly
half a lifetime ago. But when she needs advice
on how to run her music company, Blue Balloon
Songwriting, she looks to lessons from home.
Her father, Paul Lipson, served as the principal at
Roosevelt Elementary School in West Bloomfield. Now
retired, he gave her a foundation in the education arena
and guides her in sorting out how to manage music
teachers, parents’ expectations and more.
Blue Balloon Songwriting provides in-home music
lessons in Brooklyn and Manhattan for kids age 3 and
older, as well as for teens and adults.
Lipson, who left Michigan in 1999 to attend SUNY
Purchase, has been in New York ever since. After studying
English and philosophy and graduating in 2003, she went
on tour in Europe as the front person of her own band.
She kept playing guitar as she worked as a temp, did office
jobs, served as a nanny and then, in 2007, started teaching
at a preschool in Brooklyn.
Parents there heard she was a musician and asked for
afterschool music lessons for their kids. As the business
grew, she found herself with not one but two full-time jobs
on her hands.
“I had to choose between my day job as a preschool
teacher and my afternoon job as a guitar teacher; I made
the choice in the spring of 2010,” she says. “I left my job
at the school and started Blue Balloon, created the LLC,
made it a legitimate business and never looked back.”
The focus is on songwriting, which is how she learned
to play, she says. Instead of learning to read music before
composing or learning only through classical music, stu-
dents learn to play by writing their own songs, right from
the start.
Today, Lipson, who lives in Brooklyn with her husband,
Kamali Robinson, sons Maxwell, 3, and Henry, 1, and their
dog, Finn, has 35 teachers working for her.
The company reaches 175 students a week, with a focus
on piano, guitar, voice, ukulele and drums. The students
all learn instruments through songwriting. Lipson now
focuses on running the company.
When Lipson thinks of inspiring educators, Mr.
Corcoran, who taught World Literature at West Bloomfield
High School, comes to mind. His class gave her a back-
ground in Russian literature that served her well in the
small liberal arts college she attended, where she took a
class in Dostoyevsky. That and other classes she picked
were based on what she read in Mr. Corcoran’s class; and
they led to her meeting people who became her commu-
nity.
These days, bits of her childhood education come
through in the company she’s created, she says. Lipson
attended Doherty Elementary School, Abbott Middle
School and West Bloomfield High School.
“I had very transformative experiences in some of my
classes growing up” she says. “I learned a lot about how
to think and how to think about education.” •

