In 2022, Clayton Stephenson made his debut with the North Carolina Symphony performing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2.
American pianist Clayton Stephenson, hailed for “extraordinary narrative and poetic gifts” and interpretations that are “fresh, incisive and characterfully alive” (Gramophone), grew up in New York City. He started piano lessons at age seven and was accepted into The Juilliard School’s Music Advancement Program for underprivileged children the next year. At the age of 10 he advanced to Juilliard’s elite Pre-College program. He practiced on a synthesizer at home until he found an old upright piano on the street that an elementary school had thrown away; that would become his practice piano for the next six years, until the Lang Lang Foundation donated a new piano to him when he was 17.
Recent and upcoming highlights of Stephenson’s career include appearances with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Chicago Sinfonietta, the Fort Worth and Lansing symphony orchestras, and the Louisville Orchestra. Recital appearances have included the Phillips Collection Concert Series in Washington, DC, Fondation Louis Vuitton Auditorium in Paris, Bad Kissinger Sommer Festival and Beethovenfest in Germany, Colour of Music Festival, Ravinia Festival, and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. He has been featured on NPR, WUOL, and WQXR, and appeared in the “GRAMMY® Salute to Classical Music” Concert at Carnegie’s Stern Auditorium.
Stephenson now studies in the Harvard-NEC Dual Degree Program, pursuing a bachelor’s degree in economics at Harvard University and a master’s degree in piano performance at the New England Conservatory. In addition to being the first Black finalist at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2022, he was named a 2022 Gilmore Young Artist, as well as a 2017 U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts and a Young Scholar of the Lang Lang International Music Foundation. He also received a jury discretionary award at the 2015 Van Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition and Festival.
