Stephen Clapp

Violinist Stephen Clapp, retired Dean of The Juilliard School, has maintained a performing and teaching career for decades, while serving as an administrator at Juilliard, Oberlin and Aspen. He 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, Jacqueline DuPre, Yo-Yo Ma. Winner of the first Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award as a member of the Beaux Arts String Quartet, Mr. Clapp also was a founding member of the Blair Quartet. He has recorded and toured internationally with The Oberlin Trio. Dean Clapp has given master classes and appeared in recitals and concerto performances in the United States, Canada, South America, Europe and Asia.

A deeply committed teacher of talented young performing artists, Dean Clapp continues to teach violin and chamber music at Juilliard. He began his teaching career at the Juilliard Preparatory Division (now called the Pre-College) in 1962 while earning his Master of Science degree from Juilliard. Subsequent teaching affiliations were with the Aspen Music School, Peabody College in Nashville, The University of Texas at Austin and the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music. He has contributed articles to The Instrumentalist and was editor of the American String Teachers’ Journal’s Violin Forum.

Stephen Clapp has held several posts at institutions of higher education in the performing arts. He has served as Dean of the Juilliard School from 1995-2008. As Associate Dean of Juilliard from 1991-94, he supervised all orchestral and chamber music activities at the school; he has been a member of the Juilliard violin and chamber music faculties since 1987. He has served in many policy and curriculum-related positions at Juilliard, including the Admissions, Financial Aid, Vocal Arts and DMA Governance Committees, Faculty Council, Administrative Council and the Committee on Scholastic Standing. Dean Clapp was a member of the President’s Senior Staff from 1991 to 2007. He also served as Dean of the Aspen Music Festival and School, and Acting Dean of the Oberlin Conservatory.

His musical training includes study 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. Mr. Clapp resides with his wife, Linda, in Connecticut.