Presented by Artists' International Management as a winner of the New York Recital Debut Award, Brigham Young University flute professor April Clayton will perform her Carnegie Hall Solo Recital Debut Saturday (Jan. 11) at 5:30 p.m.
Assisting Clayton will be pianist and composer Philip Lasser, a member of the faculty at The Juilliard School. Among the pieces on the program will be Lasser's Flute Sonata. Other collaborative artists will be Clayton's brother, baritone Christopher Clayton, as well as pianist Jihea Hong and clarinetist Ilian Iliev.
Clayton, a native of Bountiful, Utah, attended Oberlin College and Conservatory as a National Merit Scholar and completed her B.M. and M.M. degrees at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. She was the youngest student ever admitted to the doctoral program at The Juilliard School at age 21, and received her doctor of music arts degree from Juilliard in May 2001.
As a flute student in Utah, Clayton won first place in the high school division of the Utah State Fair at age 13, with a performance of the Ibert Flute Concerto. She went on to win first place in the Music Teachers' National Association Woodwind Competition, first place in the Jefferson Symphony Young Artist Concerto Competition and was also a winner of the National Flute Association Orchestral Audition Competition.
She has previously performed in Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, in the Summergarden Concert Series at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, Rachmaninoff Hall in Moscow, the Palazzo dei Congressi in Italy and the Holder's Season Festival in Barbados.
Clayton and pianist Hong recently gave several performances in prominent venues of Seoul and Incheon, South Korea, as the recipients of multiple grants.
Clayton has been principal flute and concerto soloist with the New York Lyric Orchestra, and has additionally been principal flute with the Jupiter Symphony, the National Repertory Orchestra and the Sarasota Music Festival.
Also, she has toured as a member of the New Juilliard Ensemble and has been a concerto soloist with orchestras in New Jersey, Cincinnati, Denver and several ensembles in Utah.
Writer: Elizabeth B. Jensen
