Pocket Opera North Beach, through nearly two decades of presenting a weekly chamber music series (1960-1978) at the Old Spaghetti Factory, to his present-day fame as the creator of one of San Francisco's most popular operatic institutions. Pippin's first translation came in 1968, in the course of preparing Mozart's one-act opera "Bastien und Bastienne" for performance as part of his chamber music series. The opera, and his singing translation of it, were immediate successes with San Francisco audiences. From that point on, Pippin has dedicated himself to the task of producing literate English versions of both well-loved classics and lesser-known gems of
David Wickham Guildhall School of Music and Drama and studied with Norman Beedie, Paul Roberts and later with Graham Johnson and Paul Hamburger. He is currently a lecturer at Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. He was a member of the music staff of the Australian Opera Studio from 2003 to 2006, where he was music director for productions of "Giulio Cesare", "Don Quichotte", "Carmen", "Così fan tutte", "Rodelinda", "Manon", "Bastien und Bastienne" and "Trouble in Tahiti", as well as "Elijah" and four cabarets. At the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts he has conducted "Candide", "A Midsummer Night's Dream", Malcolm Williamson's