DAYTONA BEACH — When Elijah Stevens plays one of his favorite piano pieces, such as Frédéric Chopin’s stately Scherzo No. 2, his long, powerful fingers glide across the keys with unconscious ease.
“Some things came more naturally to me, but I also spent more time working on it,” said Stevens, 25, a 2017 Bethune-Cookman University graduate who has faced a challenging road in pursuit of his dream of becoming a world-renowned classical pianist. “Literally every chance I had, I practiced.”
If his playing is seemingly effortless, Stevens’ trek toward his ambitious musical aspirations has been an arduous journey over the past few years, fraught with rejection and months of homelessness on the mean streets of New York City.
Now, all that sacrifice has paid off. Stevens has been accepted into the piano performance program at the prestigious Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory in Toronto, Canada. That places him in a student body that includes only 20 or so pianists annually.
School officials were so impressed with Stevens’ DVD audition that they granted him a $25,000 scholarship that covers most of the school’s $30,000 cost, said James Anagnoson, dean and a member of the conservatory’s piano faculty.
“You have to have the technical ability or you can’t perform at this level, but what we look for are people with a real artistic voice, someone who really speaks to us through the music,” Anagnoson said. “Elijah did this.”
Stevens starts in the fall, part of a student body that is intentionally limited to a carefully selected roster of 120 students, Anagnoson said. That includes less than two dozen in the piano program, he said.
“We’re really looking forward to having him here as a student,” Anagnoson said. “We have only about 20 pianists and three or four professors who teach them. It’s like a big family. That’s the kind of school it is. We feel that Elijah will not only fit in but contribute amazingly to the culture of the school.“
For Stevens, the prospect of such intensive study is something he had almost stopped dreaming about three years ago. At that time, he was sleeping on a cot in a homeless shelter in New York City, after financial issues had abruptly ended his one semester of study under his piano idol, the famed Olga Kern, at the Manhattan School of Music.
“They escorted me off campus and packed up my things,” Stevens said. “That was excruciating for me. I felt like all of my dreams were being ripped away from me. I never wanted to see an application again. I just felt rejected.”
In all, he spent seven months among the homeless. He earned enough teaching piano students at a local music school to keep his phone connected and pay for his own lessons that he continued to take.
“I put it all on the line,” he said, reflecting on scenes in the shelter that still haunt him. “You saw people at the lowest point in their lives. It felt like you were less than human a lot of the time. It was just an atmosphere that could suck the life out of you.”
Amid all that, Stevens had claimed an enviable student slot with Kern, an internationally renowned performer, in the same way that he had gained admission to Bethune-Cookman nearly a decade ago.
He made a bold, out-of-left-field appeal that he backed up with a magnetic personality and promising keyboard skills.
“I showed up there and told them my story,” he said.
When his admission request was initially turned down, Stevens didn’t stop trying.
“I’m the type of person who doesn’t take ‘No’ for an answer,” he said, flashing a wide smile.
Stevens emailed Kern personally, an appeal that yielded a face-to-face audition.
“I was right there in front of my idol,” he said. “My hands were shaking like crazy. Everything I had done to get there and now it’s happening.”
Nearly 10 years ago, Stevens had taken the same go-for-broke approach when he arrived at Bethune-Cookman University from his hometown of Freeport, Grand Bahama.
With only about $100 in his pockets, he had stuffed everything he owned into two suitcases for a hastily planned last-minute visit for an unsolicited audition.
In the Bahamas, Stevens wasn’t introduced to the piano until age 11, far later than the starting point of many other concert pianists. Although he had shown no musical inclinations, he was selected randomly by members of his church to take lessons so that he could accompany hymns during services.
It quickly became a passion, as Stevens pounded away at a portable 66-note instrument with light-up keys that played pre-set renditions of famous classical pieces such as Beethoven’s “Für Elise” and Mozart’s “Turkish March,” the third movement of the composer’s Piano Sonata No. 11.
“That was where I learned to love classical music,” he said. “During my lunch break at school, I wouldn’t eat. I just wanted to practice. I wanted to practice all the time.”
Even so, Stevens’ technique needed a lot of work when he arrived in Daytona Beach.
“He was definitely a diamond in the rough,” said Rose Grace, an associate professor of piano at B-CU who became his mentor. “But his story was compelling, his passion and perseverance. That always influences people and that was definitely the case with me and Dr. (M. Shawn) Hundley, our department chair.”
They arranged for Stevens to receive a scholarship as accompanist to the school’s chorale.
“It was a leap of faith,” Grace said. “It was a week before classes and he literally showed up on my doorstep with two suitcases and nowhere to go.”
Three-and-a-half years later, Stevens won a pair of top awards as a senior at the 2017 James A. Hefner HBCU Piano Competition at Tennessee State University in Nashville. His elite performance was a milestone for both him and his school as he became the first B-CU student to win two leading prizes at the event for Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
Grace is excited about the potential for her former student to refine his skills in Toronto.
“It’s a fabulous opportunity,” she said. “It’s important to have a great school, a great teacher and a great program, but it’s just as important to be surrounded by a nurturing environment that offers the highest quality of what you want to pursue.
“Toronto is an amazing center. I’m hoping he will take advantage of that by immersing himself in it, attending concerts, hopefully getting the opportunity to play chamber music, as well.”
For Grace, the challenge ahead for her former student will be topush beyond mere technical skills to inject his performances with the passion and personality that has already opened doors at Bethune-Cookman and elsewhere.
“He’s very eloquent and he always makes a fabulous impression that way,” she said. “That will continue to serve him well. Now, he needs to ensure his musical skills reach that same level. Fast technique is impressive, but what sets a real artist apart from a very gifted student with lots of potential is that attention to detail, to work countless hours on developing that. Nobody can do that for him.”
For Stevens, the lesson learned over the past few years is that there’s no stopping now.
“Never, ever give up,” he said. “No matter how long it takes; no matter how many rejections; no matter how many times you fail. You need to have faith, to believe in yourself and reach your dream. You can always find a way to reach your dream.” — Daytona Beach News Journal
