September 15th Concert Hosted By Fredericksburg Music Club
A performance by Clayton Stephenson, the first Black finalist to ever compete in the Van Cliburn Piano Competition (2022), will take place here Sunday, Sept. 15, when the Fredericksburg Music Club kicks off its 88th annual program of concerts.
Seating for the 3 p.m. program in the sanctuary of Fredericksburg United Methodist Church, 1800 North Llano, will begin at 2:30 p.m. on a first-come, first-served basis. The performance is free, although goodwill offerings are welcome.
Hailed by Gramophone for “extraordinary narrative and poetic gifts” and interpretations that are “fresh, incisive and characterfully alive”, Stephenson will offer a program that includes works by Beethoven, Bach, Scarlatti, Gershwin and others.
Growing up in New York City, Stephenson started piano lessons at age 7 and the next year was accepted into The Juilliard School’s Music Advancement Program—a full scholarship program for under-represented students—where he lingered to watch student recitals and fell in love with music.
He advanced to Juilliard’s elite Pre-College at age 10—with the help of his teacher at the time, Beth Nam, who gave him countless extra lessons without charge—to study with Matti Raekallio, Hung-Kuang Chen and Ernest Barretta.
Stephenson 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.
He credits the generous support of community programs with providing him musical inspiration and resources along the way.
“The Third Street Music School jump-started my music education; the Young People’s Choir taught me phrasing and voicing; Juilliard’s Music Advancement Program introduced me to formal and rigorous piano training, which enabled me to get into Juilliard Pre-College; the Morningside Music Bridge validated my talent and elevated my self-confidence; the Boy’s Club of New York exposed me to jazz, and the Lang Lang Foundation brought me to stages worldwide and transformed me from a piano student to a young artist,” he said
Stephenson graduated from the Harvard-New England Conservatory (NEC) dual degree program in spring 2023 with a bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard and a master’s degree in piano performance from NEC under Wha Kyung Byun.
Along the way, in addition to being the first Black finalist at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition (2022), he was named 2022 Gilmore Young Artist, 2017 U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts, Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist, Gheens Young Artist and Young Scholar of the Lang Lang International Music Foundation.
Recent and upcoming highlights include concertos with the Houston and North Carolina Symphonies and Las Vegas Philharmonic, festival appearances at Grand Teton and Tippet Rise, recitals at venues including Foundation Louis Vuitton and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and collaborations with violinists Nikki and Timothy Chooi in Europe, Canada and the United States.
On the 69th United Nations Day, Stephenson played with the International Youth Orchestra at the U.N. General Assembly Hall. He has been featured on NPR, WUOL and WQXR
and appeared in the “GRAMMY® Salute to Classical Music” Concert at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium.
In addition to freewill offerings given at the door of the Sept. 15 concert, that afternoon’s performance is also being partially funded by the Texas Commission on the Arts along with donations from members of the Fredericksburg Music Club.
At the afternoon concert, membership cards for individuals or corporate sponsors wishing to join the Fredericksburg Music Club will also be available at the door.
Meanwhile, more information about the FMC or assistance in joining the organization is also available online at http://fredericksburgmusicclub.com/.