The character of Stony Brook's music department is largely due to the nature of our faculty. Faculty are chosen not only for their stature as performers, scholars, and composers, but also for their rapport with students, their ability to work cooperatively with their colleagues, and their commitment to the values of the department. The rapid growth and success of the Stony Brook music department is due to the vision of some of our founding faculty: Billy Jim Layton, our first chairman (now retired) and the late David Lewin, our first director of graduate studies and principal architect of our graduate program. The character and spirit of the faculty owes a great debt to some gifted teachers who are no longer with us, most notably Bülent Arel, who built our first Electronic Music Studio, and Samuel Baron, whose combination of gentleness and musical vision inspired his flute students and his fellow faculty alike.
