When 7-year-old Clayton Stephenson’s single mom learned that piano lessons cost only $5 more per hour than a babysitter, it only made sense that he should learn a craft.

He doesn’t make it sound as if it was much fun at first, but that would change.

“I was thrown into a Chinatown basement music school,” said the prestigious 2022 Gilmore Young Artist. “But my first teacher, Zoya, was the perfect introduction to music. She let me play what I loved, not just scales and etudes.”

From there, he modestly credits New York City community programs for giving him musical stepping stones, inspiration, and resources along the way.

The next summer, he moved on to the longest-running community music school in the United States, the Third Street Music School, where he was first exposed to jazz and African drumming. The Young People’s Choir afterschool program taught him that, as he put it, “the voice is the first instrument. I still sing through pieces that I’m learning to get them in my body.”

Accepted the next year into the Juilliard Outreach Music Advancement Program for underprivileged children, he was immersed at the age of eight in hour-long private lessons, music theory, ear training, and music history, as well as student recitals that enthralled him.

Young Clayton fell in love with music. And that’s lucky for Southwest Florida as Clayton will be performing Feb. 8 in St. Leo Auditorium, Bonita Springs.

With the guidance of Beth Nam, a teacher who recognized his talent, Clayton was able to advance at age 10 to Juilliard’s elite Pre-College program, the first Outreach student to enter that program.

Unable to afford a piano at home, Clayton practiced on a synthesizer until he and his mother came across an old upright piano that an elementary school had left by their dumpster. It would serve as his practice piano for the next six years until the Lang Lang Foundation gave him a brand-new piano when he was 17.

“It was the Lang Lang Foundation that brought me to stages worldwide and transformed me from a piano student to a young artist,” he said.

Along with the 2022 Gilmore award, which brings him to Bonita Springs through Grand Piano Series’ ongoing partnership with The Gilmore, his accolades include being a 2017 U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts and a Young Scholar of the Lang Lang International Music Foundation, as well as the first Black finalist in the 2022 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

“This Grand Piano Series concert is the most excited I’ve ever been about a program,” he said. “Before now, I’ve always played pieces for things — a sonata for an audition, a Mozart concerto for a competition. This time I finally get to play pieces that I love.

“I chose contemplative pieces, including Beethoven’s beautiful sonata, for the beginning of the recital. but I felt the second half should be more lively and colorful. Spanish music isn’t played too often in recitals, but Albéniz’ Iberia is one of the masterpieces of Spanish music. I wanted to bring it to light.

Gramophone has written that “Stephenson is not just a remarkable virtuoso, but a poet, a dramatist, and a master storyteller,” but he insists that the real beauty and poetry lies in the music.

“Giving the audience a little background on what they’re about to hear is the way,” he said. “It might be their first and last time hearing these pieces, so it’s important for me to put everything I’ve got, including prep for the audience, into the performance.” ¦

In the KNOW

GRAND PIANO SERIES: 

Clayton Stephenson

· Thursday, Feb. 8, 7:30 p.m.

· St. Leo Auditorium, 28290 Beaumont Road, Bonita Springs.

· Purchase tickets in advance for $45 ($50 at the door) at grandpianoseries.org.

For assistance, call 469-333-3231.