“Every time his girlfriend visited, she got the small bedroom and I had to sleep with him out in the living room,” Fish says.

Wiprud would go on to take all the classes for a concentration in music and by senior year, was skipping his science classes in order to compose. Nonetheless, he graduated cum laude with a degree in biochemistry.

Passion for his commitments, whether scientific or musical, was a given for Wiprud, who applied to his music the devotion to excellence he cultivated before Harvard and a daring innovativeness he developed in college.

“Ted was, I think, just about the top of my class in high school, and a very focused, diligent, smart guy, but a little on the dry side, and my understanding was he was going to be either a scientist or doctor,” Fish says. “Not only did he change gears and become a musician, he became associated with new music and other experimental forms of music, which took a lot of guts.”

After graduating, Wiprud went across the river to Boston University to study composition with David Del Tredici. From there, he taught at Walnut Hill, a performing arts high school in nearby Natick.

Although he began in teaching, Wiprud says he knew he did not want to end up in academia.

“I wanted to be involved in the actual business, getting music out to people, rather than teaching people how to do it, but I’ve always been interested in getting music to younger people,” Wiprud says. “My real passion is really getting people to have a great time with music as I do.”

He began working with various orchestras on projects, including creating educational projects for the Brooklyn Philharmonic, a music community dear to Wiprud, who is a Brooklyn resident.

Then, after an old friend left the position of Director of Education for the New York Philharmonic, Wiprud was recruited for the job.

One of the many perks of Wiprud’s job, he says, is being able to listen to one of the world’s most celebrated orchestras anytime he wants to. But Wiprud says it is also rewarding for him to see the results of the many education programs he oversees.

“I can’t leave out the experience of seeing kids light up when they hear music in their school or here in the hall, seeing them recognize music they’ve heard before, and show how much they love it when they hear it again,” Wiprud says.

SPEAKING THROUGH MUSIC

Music has always been a part of Wiprud’s life, both in the background and the foreground.

Not only does he integrate the art into his different roles in life—educational director, composer, father—Wiprud also experiments with his compositional style. His catalogue includes humorous pieces like “Crow Magnum,” one of his most performed pieces that features a solo percussionist and fez-wearing stuffed crows.

But Wiprud, who is Christian, says he composes mostly chamber music and that much of his repertoire is inspired by spiritual ideas and experiences. But for Wiprud, his music does not seek to evangelize, but to express what words fail to.