William Stapp

William Stapp received his B.M. from the University of Alabama and an M.M from the University of Michigan where he attended on a full fellowship. Following this he received an A. S. (Stringed Instrument Technology-Violinmaking) from Indiana University. He also attended the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music School for several summers. His teachers include students of Ivan Galamian and William Primrose.

Mr. Stapp is Assistant Principal Viola of the Maryland Symphony and a member of the National Philharmonic at Strathmore Hall. He is a member of ‘Duo Liutaio’, a harp-violin collaboration with his wife harpist Astrid Walschot-Stapp. Mr. Stapp has performed at the Kennedy Center, in South America and Europe, and as part of the ‘Strings ‘n Things’ and Shepherd String Trios. Mr. Stapp has coached the strings of the Academy of St. Cecilia Youth Orchestras, the Maryland Classic Youth Orchestras, Frederick Regional Youth Orchestra, and the Shepherd Orchestras. He has served on the faculty of the Heritage Academy and the BlackRock Center for the Arts and is currently on the string faculty of Shepherd University and Frederick Community College.

Mr. Stapp has done extensive research into the logic the Cremonese violin using the instruments at the Library of Congress as a reference. In addition to teaching violin and viola privately at Catoctin Studio, he maintains a violin-making studio at home where he focuses on making concert quality violins and violas.