Violin faculty member and Dean Emeritus of The Juilliard School, Stephen Clapp, will be the guest speaker at The Stony Brook School's eighty-seventh commencement exercises in Swanson Gymnasium, 1 Chapman Parkway, Stony Brook on Saturday, May 23, 2009, at 11 a.m. For further information, please call (631) 751-1800.

Stephen Clapp, Dean of The Juilliard School, has held several posts at institutions of higher education in the performing arts and enjoys an extensive performing career as a violinist. As Associate Dean of Juilliard from 1991 to 1994, Dean Clapp supervised all orchestral and chamber music activities at the School; he has been a member of the violin and chamber music faculties since 1987. He has served ably in many policy and curriculum-related positions at

Juilliard, including the Admissions, Financial Aid, Vocal Arts Executive, and DMA Governance committees, Faculty and Administrative Councils, and the Committee on Scholastic Standing. Dean Clapp served as a member of the President's Senior Staff from 1991 - 2007. He also has served as Dean of the Aspen Music Festival and School, and Acting Dean of the Oberlin Conservatory.

A deeply committed teacher of talented young performing artists, Dean Clapp continues teaching violin at Juilliard. He began his teaching career at The Juilliard School Preparatory Division (now called the Pre-College) in 1962, while earning his Master of Science degree from Juilliard. Subsequent teaching affiliations were with Aspen Music School, Peabody College in Nashville, The University of Texas at Austin, and the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music.

Dean Clapp has been Concertmaster of the Aspen Festival Chamber Symphony and the Nashville and Austin Symphonies, and has performed in collaboration with such artists as Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Yo-Yo Ma, Brooks Smith, and the late Jacqueline DuPré, among others. Winner of the first Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award as a member of the Beaux Arts String Quartet, Dean Clapp also was the founding member of the Blair Quartet. He was also the founding member of the Oberlin Trio, which toured internationally and has made several recordings. A contributor to The Instrumentalist and American String Teachers' Journal, Dean Clapp has given master classes and appeared in recitals and concerto performances in the United States, Canada, South America, and Europe.

Dean Clapp's musical education includes studies with Dorothy DeLay and Ivan Galamian at Juilliard; with Andor Toth at the Oberlin Conservatory, where he earned his bachelor of music degree; and at the Mozarteum Akademie in Salzburg, Austria.

Dean Clapp resides with his wife, Linda in Greenwich, CT.