A rising classical music star makes his Maui debut
Trending
Praised by Gramophone magazine as, "not just a remarkable virtuoso, but a poet, a dramatist and a master story-teller," Clayton Stephenson will make his Maui debut Feb. 28 at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center.
A finalist at the prestigious Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2022, Stephenson will perform Schubert "Four Impromptus, D. 899," Stravinsky's "Trois mouvements de Petrouchka," Keith Jarrett's interpretation of "Over the Rainbow" and Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue."
He will open the recital with four Schubert impromptus, "No. 1 in C Minor," "No. 2 in E-flat Major," "No. 3 in G-flat Major" and "No. 4 in A-flat Major." The flowing, meditative third piece is the most popular of Schubert's impromptus. "No. 1 in C Minor" was featured in Stanley Kubrick's drama "Barry Lyndon."
"The Schubert impromptu are just so colorful," says Stephenson. "I really love to try to give audiences a little bit of different styles, and for me, Schubert is all about the changes between different keys and modulating, and those different keys have their individual characters. Each of those pieces is quite gorgeous, and the third one is one of the most gorgeous impromptus."
Stravinsky's "Trois mouvements de Petrouchka" comprises "Danse russe" "Chez Pétrouchka," and "La semaine grasse," arrangements for piano of music from the ballet "Petrushka," which he composed for pianist Arthur Rubinstein.
"The second half, Stravinsky's 'Petrouchka, I just love taking these transcriptions," he continues. "I can tell the story of what happens in the ballet, but also I get to try to mimic all the different instruments, the triangle, the trumpet, the oboe, the strings. Hopefully that's all apparent in my version of 'Petrouchka.'"
Renowned for its technical and musical difficulty, Stephenson adds, "even Stravinsky admitted he couldn't play the left hand. It's like everything and the kitchen sink thrown at the piano and seeing what sticks. It's a fabulous challenge to undertake."
A fan of jazz pianist Jarrett, he says, "I've wanted to add him into my repertoire for the longest time. So I'm starting with 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow.' It's not 'Over the Rainbow,' there's Somewhere as well." So I'm going to try to combine a little bit of some other stuff that he's done into that transcription."
Stephenson will close with Gershwin's magnificent "Rhapsody in Blue," which premiered in 1924 during "An Experiment in Modern Music" concert. Combining elements of jazz and classical music, it was later adopted by United Airlines for ads.
"Then finally, there's 'Rhapsody in Blue.' This piece is to me like New York, where I grew up. You can hear the bustling of the city, the energy, listening to the taxis drive by, the little jazz clubs on the side of the street and all the people. I think it's really about me coming home and kind of showing a bit of what New York sounds like in Hawaii. I love the 'Rhapsody.'"
A graduate from the Harvard-New England Conservatory dual-degree program with a bachelor's degree in economics from Harvard and a master's degree in piano performance from NEC, Stephenson grew up in New York City. He started piano lessons at age 7 and was accepted into the Juilliard Outreach Music Advancement Program for underprivileged children.
"My mom really didn't have any intentions of kind of me doing this seriously, but we thought it'd be nice to have some time off from me," he explains. "So she took me to this Chinatown basement school, and from there, I just grew to love the music that I played. There were so many different organizations, which gave me a lot of the inspiration and the advice necessary to continue improving, and especially the Harvard New England Conservatory program. After the Cliburn competition, I started to go on the road and started to be able to perform for people. That's when I really realized that this is where I belong. This is what I love to do."
Playing piano for audiences he says he most loves "being able to conjure up a time machine and kind of access different types of emotions that people in the past have experienced that are very similar to what we experience nowadays, and bring the audience into that moment as well. Each performance is so different only because the audience is different. If it's just me on that piano, it's just called practicing. So it's really how the audience feels the music. When do they become silent? When do they stop to breathe? When do they take coughs? You know, all that stuff kind of informs the way I play the pieces. And that's kind of the improvisatory side of classical music. The notes stay the same, but the way I can play the notes always changes, kind of like in jazz. The chords stay the same, but the notes change."
Stephenson performs at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 28 at the MACC's Castle Theater. Tickets are $15, $35 and $50, plus applicable fees. Tickets for kids 12 and under are half price.