Seeing the World Through Music

Matthew Whitaker joined the Imagine Solutions stage at the age of 16, wowing the audience with his genius at the piano. His talents are incredibe enough on their own, until you learn that Matthew is blind, making his artistic accomplishments stratospheric. Matthew was born at only 24 weeks, with a less than 50% chance of survival. His entire life, Matthew has not just beaten the odds, but redefined them. He has traveled the world on the strength of his music, sharing his dream and connecting with so many others. His message is clear: it’s not where you start, but where you end up. Matthew played three pieces, including an arrangement of his own.

00.00
I told you earlier that you were gonna be inspired and if you haven't been inspired yet today you are about to be Matthew Whitaker 16 is a jazz piano prodigy he began playing at age 3 when a relative gave him a small Yamaha keyboard and at age 15 he became the youngest Yamaha artist ever and oh yeah he's blind please welcome Matthew Whitaker and his dad motion [Music] right on over here thank you so much why can't everyone hear me yep okay my first time having this much I love it yeah yeah it's my dad how y'all doing yeah thank you it's knowledge to be here before I play
01.00
I want to share this thought with you imagine an infant born at 24 weeks weighing 1 pound and 11 ounces and the doctors telling his parents he has less than 50% chance of survival later on that same infant comes home in 11 surgeries later doctors listing all the things that child will not be able to do crawl walk and speak then imagine that child motivated by music being able to do those things in store imagine that child learning multiplication facts through music learning to read well and even wear music which my parents would heard it would be too hard for me to do now imagine that young person today
02.01
visiting other countries learning about those tortures through music and sharing those moments with others so that they tu t'en dare to dream and thankful that with the right tools and support I'm able to follow my dreams which brings me to this very moment to share with you that it's not what you start but will you end up thank you thank you thank you so much now I want to play two songs for you the first one is an arrangement of mine for what my favorite things and the second song is a song by a bobbing request called classical gasps thank you [Applause]
03.07
my my [Music]
07.24
[Applause] [Music]
08.58
you
09.11
[Music] [Applause] [Music]
11.45
thank you so much thank you thank you so much that's me I have time for one boy I have time for one voice oh I want to do a song called Tea for Two my art tatum and this is for
12.00
mr. Andy [Music]
14.10
thank you thank you so much before you run off he has been you've been sitting backstage for two hours it's freezing back there you didn't warm up I'd love to see you warmed up you mean on a piano on a piano you just sat down and did that without any warm-up I mean great I was I had time to you know do it what a soundcheck with the monitor earlier yeah but not for a couple of hours I mean yesterday I was yeah what you did it yesterday so you were kind of warmed up yeah that was amazing as really good he's a Jersey boy lives right up the road from me in Hackensack
15.00
yeah way to go Matthew Moses thank you okay just amazing [Applause]