DON'T MISS OUR EXCITING OPENING NIGHT CONCERT...

PROKOFIEV!
Saturday, August 29, 2026
7:30 PM | Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center
Gary Lewis, Conductor
Clayton Stephenson, Piano
Ennis Harris, Composer & Saxophone

From the Wind, That Which Augurs - Ennis Harris
Composer & Saxophone Soloist

Piano Concerto No. 3 - Sergei Prokofiev
Featuring Clayton Stephenson, Piano
Appears by arrangement with the Cliburn Agency.

Symphony No. 5 - Sergei Prokofiev

CLICK TO PURCHASE TICKETS
$12.50 - $83.50, Students $12.50 (fees apply)
Scheduled programs and individuals are subject to change. Ticketing is handled by the Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center - all ticketing, security, and venue policies apply.

2026-2027 SEASON SPONSORED BY:
Linda Stephens
Sharon & John Webb

CONCERT SPONSORED BY:
Cliffy & BJ Beal
Karmen & Billy Bryant
Sharon & Bobby Floyd
Kay Bird
Julie Edwards
Ann & Ken Hankins, Jr.
Kris & Cheri Howard
Vickie Hurt
Ann Parish and Betty Ann Prentice

ABOUT CLAYTON STEPHENSON, PIANO

American pianist Clayton Stephenson’s love for music is immediately apparent in his joyous charisma onstage, expressive power, and natural ease at the instrument. Hailed for “extraordinary narrative and poetic gifts” and interpretations that are “fresh, incisive and characterfully alive” (Gramophone), he is committed to making an impact on the world through his music-making.

Growing up in New York City, Clayton started piano lessons at age 7, and the next year was accepted into The Julliard 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. Clayton 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. As he describes it, 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.”

Recent and upcoming highlights include concertos with the Houston, North Carolina, and Cincinnati Symphonies; festival appearances at Grand Teton, Grant Park, and Tippet Rise; recitals at Washington Performing Arts at the Kennedy Center, Fondation Louis Vuitton, and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall; gala performances with the New York and Las Vegas Philharmonics; and collaborations with violinists Nikki and Timothy Chooi. He also joins the Hartford Symphony Orchestra as 2024–2025 Artist-in-Residence.

Clayton graduated from the Harvard-New England Conservatory (NEC) dual degree program in spring 2023 with a bachelor’s degree in economics at Harvard and a master’s degree in piano performance at NEC under Wha Kyung Byun. In addition to being the first Black finalist at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2022, he received an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2024, won the inaugural Nina Simone Piano Competition in 2023, and is a 2025 Sphinx Medal of Excellence honoree.

ABOUT ENNIS HARRIS, COMPOSER

Ennis Harris is a Los Angeles-based composer and arranger whose work bridges musical cultures and forms through the lens of storytelling. His music moves fluidly across genre and cultural traditions, and has been performed by leading artists and ensembles across the U.S. and abroad.

Ennis’ recent work includes performances of his arrangement of Nino Rota’s La Dolce Vita: Finale by the Orchestra Sinfonica del Conservatorio Niccolò Piccinni featuring Joe Lovano and conducted by Vince Mendoza, as well as the premiere of his latest orchestral work From the Wind, That Which Augurs, commissioned and conducted by Dr. Larry Livingston with the 2026 TMEA Symphony Orchestra. His work Water Painter for percussion ensemble was premiered at the 2026 Northwest Percussion Festival with virtuoso marimbist Kana Funayama and the Central Washington University Percussion Ensemble. His piece Ennui: Manila, 1926, written in honor of Luis G. Dato, premiered with the UCLA Contemporary Jazz Ensemble in May of 2026.

Ennis created original arrangements in collaboration with USC Thornton School of Music Dean Jason King, Dr. Larry Livingston, and Visions and Voices for the 2025 Quincy Jones Symphonic, with the orchestra led under the baton of maestro Anthony Parnther.

Ennis is a 2024 recipient of the BMI Composer Award for his concertino for clarinet and orchestra, entitled Adarna. That same year, he received first prize in the Van Alexander Arranging Competition presented by ASMAC, for a Tango-inspired arrangement of Duke Ellington’s The Lake. In 2023, he was awarded the Jeff Clayton New Note Commission Award by the Los Angeles Jazz Society, which resulted in his 23-minute work Images and Silhouettes for 19-piece jazz chamber ensemble being premiered at the Angel City Jazz Festival. He also received the ISJAC/USF Prize for Emerging Black Composers for his big band work Eye in the Sky, and earlier the Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award for Portrait Poem.

Ennis holds a B.A. in Global Jazz Studies from UCLA and M.M. and D.M.A. degrees from USC, where he studied composition with Vince Mendoza and conducting with Larry Livingston.