past all the other kids in class. “He just had a really major facility for it, which was obvious within a year,” Penrose says. In fact, Clayton made it look so easy that his parents decided to join in. Whitmore began taking violin and then viola lessons at Lincoln Land Community College, and Penrose took up the cello.

“I thought it would come easier, honestly, but it’s very frustrating,” he says. “And to have someone in the house like Clayton, playing so well while you’re just struggling away, it bruises your ego badly.”

Little by little, it started to dawn on the dads that maybe Clayton had a special gift. Asked if he remembers when their light bulb switched on, Clayton mentions winning the WUIS-WIPA Young Musicians Contest, for musicians through high school age, in 2002. He was 9 years old.

However, after only a few lessons, Hornbacker realized that Clayton had more natural talent than any student she had encountered in her 30 years of teaching. To prepare to teach Clayton, she signed up for a week-long pedagogy symposium with Dorothy DeLay, the legendary violin instructor at the Juilliard School, whose students included Itzhak Perlman, Sarah Chang and Nadja Salerno- Sonnenberg.

“I was able to ask some questions about how to teach certain things, advanced techniques that I had not had any students who were advanced enough to do,” Hornbacker says. “I knew Clayton was going to get advanced enough to do them, and I wanted to make sure I was doing it right.”

Hornbacker tackled Clayton’s technical difficulties. His left hand squeezed the neck of his violin, his bow position wasn’t perfect, and he held his right shoulder much too high. But at the same time, she recognized astonishing gifts.

He has perfect pitch — “You can punch any note on the piano and he not only can tell you what it is, he can pick up his violin and play the right pitch in the right range,” Hornbacker says. He memorizes music so easily that Hornbacker suspects Clayton might have a photographic memory. Bonnie Ettinger, the pianist who frequently accompanied Clayton for performances, calls his memory “amazing.”

“It’s like he just internalized the music,” she says. Ettinger also noticed Clayton’s immunity to stage fright. One of their earliest performances together was on the Unity Temple Concert Series, in Oak Park, where Clayton was one of three featured soloists. Ettinger says she felt jittery — Sen. Dick Durbin and his wife, Loretta, were in the audience — and tried to teach then-10-year-old Clayton the deep breathing technique she uses to relax herself while they were waiting backstage.

“He said, ‘I’m not nervous, Mrs. Ettinger. When are they gonna introduce us?’ ” she recalls. “He was just such a joy. I considered it an honor and a privilege to be able to accompany him.” With Hornbacker’s coaching, Clayton entered his first national competition, sponsored by the Sphinx Organization, devoted to increasing diversity in classical music by nurturing African American and Latino artists. Just 12 at the time, Clayton was the youngest musician to make it to the finals of this competition. He placed fifth.

“You know what was the most amazing thing? This kid,” Hornbacker says, “no matter where you put him, in whatever context, he rises to the top. It’s like he has these reserves of ability that all you have to do is strike the match and ignite it and there it goes.”

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