Sun 4/6 @ 2-3:30PM
Twenty-six-year-old Clayton Stephenson is a young American classical pianist on the rise. The New York resident took up his instrument at 7 and began studying with teachers at the Juilliard School the following year. His path wasn’t easy; he practiced for six years on an old upright piano he found on the street thrown away by an elementary school. Juilliard’s pre-college program was a springboard to Harvard-New England Conservatory where he graduated in 2023 with a bachelor’s in economics from Harvard and a master’s in piano performance from the New England Conservatory. In 2022, he was the first Black finalist in the esteemed Van Cliburn International Piano competition.
Since then he’s started performing with orchestras as well as giving solo performances, such as the one he’ll do on Sunday April 6 at Tri-C Metro’s auditorium. His program will include Franz Schubert’s Four Impromptus, op. 90, Harold Arlen’s “Over the Rainbow” as arranged by Keith Jarrett, Isaac Albéniz’s “Iberia, Book I,” and Igor Stravinsky’s Trois mouvements de Petrouchka.
It’s free but a ticket is required. Go here to get one.