PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. (AP) - Tina Velazquez was in her kitchen when she heard someone sit down and start playing the grand piano in the other room. The Pembroke Pines resident figured it was her husband, Willie, returning home from work early. Instead, she walked into the surprise of a lifetime - her not even 4-year-old son, Jacob, at the keys.
“I asked Jacob ’how was he doing that?’” Velazquez recalled. “He replied, ’I watched daddy.’”
Fast forward seven years and Jacob isn’t just surprising his mom anymore. Last month, the now 10-year-old performed Chopin’s “Fantaisie-Impromptu” on the Harry Connick Jr. Show. Before that, he performed with the Imperial Symphony Orchestra for the group’s annual Autism Awareness Month Cookie Concert.
“It was a very moving experience to watch my son, who was once considered nonverbal and I didn’t know if I would ever hear his voice, up there on stage,” Velazquez said. She and her husband were joined by multiple family members to watch Jacob play the Lakeland concert. “I loved seeing the smile on his face when he glanced down to see them sitting in the front row.”
The fourth grader was diagnosed with autism when he was around three - something Tina considers to be a factor to her son’s prodigy-like skills.
“After learning the score, he plays from memory,” she said. “I think being on the autism spectrum gives Jacob a certain ’hyper focus’ that helps him memorize pieces so quickly and efficiently.”
Jacob’s parents enrolled him in piano lessons by the time he was four, despite being turned away by multiple instructors.
“Most schools said they didn’t work with kids under seven,” his mom explained. “Some said to come back when he was five. We really felt that he would benefit from lessons and finally found a teacher that agreed to work with him.”
When Jacob flew through books in days that would take other students months, his instructor, Jaffird Sierra, realized Jacob was special. Sierra enrolled Jacob into a competition where at 4-years-old, he performed Mozart’s “Minuet.” His feet swung off the bench as he played. He was the youngest kid in the competition and ended up taking home the double platinum trophy.
In 2015, the then-7-year-old caught the attention of pop princess, Taylor Swift. After a video of him playing a medley of Swift songs gained over half a million views on YouTube, the singer and songwriter reached out via Twitter.
“I HAVE to give you a hug for that beautiful piano medley you did!” Swift wrote in a Tweet in August, 2015. She was on her “1989” world tour at the time. “Please come to a show on my tour and say hi to me? My treat.”
Now, he attends the Miami International Piano Academy at Nova Southeastern University, an audition-based program which is usually reserved for adults only. He also receives instruction from Giselle Brodsky, the Founder and Creative Director of the Miami International Piano Festival
During his Harry Connick Jr. Show appearance, Jacob wore a blazer, blue jeans and Converse sneakers and spoke with confidence.
“To me, autism doesn’t mean we can’t be capable of doing things,” he told Connick Jr. “But it does mean that we’re unique, different and cool.”
Connick Jr. replied with a grin, “I could tell that already.”
The songwriter and talk show host also followed Jacob on Twitter, which Tina says “meant the world to him.”
“Harry Connick Jr. is truly a one of a kind, caring human being,” she said. “He told Jacob that he would be a fan for life.” Tina and Willie are considering surprising Jacob with tickets to see Connick Jr. perform at the Hard Rock in June.
As for what’s next, Jacob recently finished Beethoven’s “Concerto No. 1” - which is over half-an-hour long - in its entirety and is looking forward to performing it with an orchestra.
He’ll be performing at DJ Irie Weekend - the annual summer fundraiser held by the Miami Heat’s DJ and is working on writing a children’s picture book to inspire other kids on the autism spectrum. The elementary schooler has also caught the attention of a production company working on a potential HBO documentary.
“Jacob is a loving and smart 10-year-old boy,” his mom said. “He’s a gifted pianist but there is also so much more to him. He loves playing drums, which he is self-taught. He also enjoys video games, riding his bike and listening to audio books. Everything Jacob does is done with passion and intensity.”
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Information from: Sun Sentinel , http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
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