Last weekend at the Richmond Symphony we welcomed American pianist Clayton Stephenson. The 25 year old New York native performed Ravel’s glittering and bluesy Piano Concerto in G Major. Two other 20th century masterworks rounded out the program; one depicting the majesty and mystery of the sea (Debussy’s La Mer), and the other rooted firmly in the earth (Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring).
A finalist at the 2022 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Clayton Stephenson is pursing a Bachelor of Economics at Harvard and a Master’s degree in piano performance at the New England Conservatory of Music, through the Harvard-NEC Dual Degree Program. He studies with Wha Kyung Byun.
One of Stephenson’s two Sunday afternoon encores was Art Tatum’s arrangement of the infectious Vincent Youmans song, Tea for Two. The Tin Pan Alley hit, with lyrics by Irving Caesar, was written in 1925 for the musical No, No, Nanette.
This performance was recorded by Performance Today at the Olivier Music Barn at Tippet Rise Art Center in Fishtail, Montana:
Amazing! I enjoy the music that you feature in your column immensely.
Thank you, Jim! I’m so glad that you are enjoying the music!
Just brilliant! I loved this so much. Thank you!