Though Clayton Stephenson has been playing piano since the age of 7, it has only been since becoming a finalist in the 2022 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition that he has been able to devote himself to music.
“Before that I just didn’t have the time to put my full force into piano,” said Stephenson, who is enrolled in the Harvard-New England Conservatory Dual Degree Program, pursuing both a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in piano performance.
Stephenson will perform the Grand Teton Music Festival’s next Sunday Piano Recital at Walk Festival Hall, the second installment of the three-part series.
…Beethoven’s Sonata No. 23 in F Minor, known as “Appassionata,” helped him see the composer as a real human being, beyond the standard image of him fiery and angry.
“What made this piece come to life for me was reading the testament he wrote to his brothers about being deaf and contemplating suicide. … His sense of duty was the only reason he doesn’t end his life, his duty to finish all these things he had in his mind.”
Stephenson will lighten the tone with George Gershwin’s “Summertime,” from his opera “Porgy and Bess,” expanded with some “amazing variations” by Fazil Say.
…After intermission, it’s Mussorgsky’s suite “Pictures at an Exhibition” as it was originally written, for one piano.
