American pianist Clayton Stephenson’s love for music is immediately apparent in his joyous charisma onstage, expressive power and natural ease at the instrument.

Growing up in New York City, Stephenson started piano lessons at age 7, and the next year he was accepted into The Julliard School’s Music Advancement Program — a full-scholarship program for disadvantaged students — where he lingered to watch student recitals and fell in love with music. Stephenson practiced on a synthesizer at home until he found an old upright piano on the street. For the next six years, that would be his practice piano, until, at the age of 17, he received a new piano from the Lang Lang Foundation.

Highlights of his 2025–26 season include a performance of the Brahms Concerto No. 2 with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, performances of Gershwin’s Concerto in F with The Philadelphia Orchestra at the Saratoga Arts Festival, Festival Internazionale Palermo (Italy), the Boston Pops and the Sarasota Orchestra. He will play the Ravel Concerto in G with the Nashville and Portland (Maine) symphony orchestras as well as the Stuttgart Philharmonic (Germany). In addition, he gives recitals at the Jacobins Festival (Toulouse, France), Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston) and Crystal Bridges Museum (Arkansas). Stephenson finishes his season in spring 2026 on tour with the Stuttgart Philharmonic in Italy.

Clayton Stephenson graduated from the Harvard–New England Conservatory of Music dual degree program in spring 2023 with a BA in economics from Harvard and a master’s degree in piano performance from NEC under Wha Kyung Byun. In addition to being the first Black finalist at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2022, he has been a recipient of a 2024 Avery Fisher Career Grant, won the inaugural Nina Simone Piano Competition in 2024 and received a Sphinx Medal of Excellence in 2025. claytonstephenson.com