- Matthew Whitaker can play several instruments.
His fingers glide around the piano with amazing ease.
This talent has taken him all over the globe,
earning him accolades, recording alongside some jazz greats.
Quite remarkable, considering
he was born three months premature, without sight
and weighing only two pounds.
Doctors told his family he would never walk or speak,
and gave him less than a 50% chance of survival.
(playful piano music)
He beat every single one of those odds.
(piano music)
- Hi, my name is Matthew Whitaker and I am at Harlem Stage.
Well, I am 20 years old.
I am from Hackensack, New Jersey.
I'm also blind.
I play piano, drums, organ, keyboards and percussion.
(drumming)
- Seated at a piano with an organ behind,
Matthew swings back and forth,
playing both at the same time.
The funny thing is I noticed watching your videos,
you were barefoot playing the organ.
Do you have to be barefoot to play the organ?
- No, you don't have to, but I just liked it
'cause you know, I can feel the pedals a bit easier.
(piano music, girl singing)
- By age three, he'd already taught himself the piano.
As a pre-teen, he performed with his church's band.
And a few years later,
his talents took him to the Apollo stage
opening for Stevie Wonder.
(playful piano music)
Now the comparisons to Stevie Wonder,
obviously, I'm sure you've heard them time and time again.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I met Stevie when I was about 10 years old,
at the Apollo Theater,
and, uh, he was being inducted into the Hall of Fame.
I hope to collab with him one day,
'cause I only had a chance to talk to him briefly
before I had to go on stage.
- What's your favorite Stevie Wonder song?
- I don't know.
All of them.
All of them are, are great.
- Can you give me a little bit of something?
(jazzy piano music)
Matthew is so highly skilled,
he even had the patience to teach this reporter,
who cannot play a single instrument, a few notes.
- You got it.
Four, three, two.
- Oh wait, oops.
That one.
- Yeah.
- How do you navigate the world
that favors, you know, the sighted?
- It's really just, about doing your best
to find ways to interact,
you know, I don't let my disability stop me.
For me, I use my cane to navigate around,
and I, I have people help me,
my parents,
I'll ask someone, like a, like a friend of mine,
like, "Where do I go from here?" or something like that,
like when, when I'm traveling somewhere.
But, um, yeah, I mean, I love just doing, you know,
you know, different activities every, every now and then.
- Like what?
- I, I love rock climbing.
- Rock climbing?
- Yeah.
- Oh my g- braver than me, I tell you, you're a daredevil.
(both laugh)
(audience cheering)
What goes through your mind when you play a song?
What is it like?
- Mmm...Good question.
I mean, when I'm playing live, really, I just,
you know, I just play, you know?
(jazz music)
One thing that just goes through my mind is like, "Okay,
this is coming up next,
and, you know, you know, and just little things to remember,
about little things that's coming up in the song and stuff,
but, but really, you know, I, I just love playing,
so I don't really focus on that so much,
and plus, since I rehearse with the band a lot, you know,
I, you know, we just follow each other, really.
- Researchers studied this a few years ago
and found this is how Matthew's brain illuminates
when he's playing.
- This is his brain activity from the language,
and then let me show you what happens when he goes from this
to music.
- It's lit.
- So, quite -
yeah, that is lit,
that brain is lit.
(audience laughs)
- Okay, so I want to play, like, a little game now.
- Oh boy.
- No, no, no don't be nervous.
Let me grab my phone and make it a little easier.
I am going to play a song that is popular,
because you're a specific type of genius
where you can hear something
and you can just play it, right?
- Yeah.
Let's see if I know it.
("Old Town Road" by Lil Nas X plays, piano starts playing)
Oh yeah.
(playing "Old Town Road" on the piano)
Yeah, that's a good one.
♪ I'm gonna take my horse to the old town road ♪
♪ I'm gonna ride til I can't no more ♪
("good 4 u" by Olivia Rodrigo plays, piano starts playing)
♪ Well good for you ♪
♪ You look happy and healthy, not me ♪
♪ If you ever cared to ask ♪
(playing "good 4 u" on piano)
- Had you ever played "good 4 u" before?
- No.
No.
(crowd cheering)
- These talents have taken Matthew
all over the world,
Belize, Italy, Paris,
but as they say, there's no place like home.
If I were to ask you to play what New York sounds like,
what does that sound like to you?
- Well, that's kind of what Johnny Uptown is, is, is about.
When I was writing it, um, you know,
that was the question that, that, that was brought up to me,
you know, like, what does New York sound like to you,
when you're traveling,
and you're doing uptown from somewhere,
that's why there, that's why there's this part.
(fast-paced piano music)
- The song is off of Matthew's new album,
"Connections," which he recorded during the pandemic.
- "Connections" is really a, an album
that really focuses on the connections that I have
with other artists, and their connections with me,
and we just had a fun time in the studio.
(jazz music)
- Matthew was classically trained in Harlem.
Returning to the legendary
New York City venue, Harlem Stage,
where he received the organization's prestigious
Emerging Artist Award in 2018.
The landmark venue, built in 1890,
has also welcomed performances by luminaries
like Ella Fitzgerald, Harry Belafonte,
and Mikhail Baryshnikov.
(bright piano music)
So it's kind of a full circle moment for him.
What does this place mean to you?
- To come back here and perform,
and have a CD release party, like, that's, that's amazing.
I've been going to Harlem since I was little, you know,
like, when I was about eight, you know,
I was going to the Harlem School of the Arts,
and when I was nine, you know, I, I went to the Apollo,
and I've been to the Harlem Stage about three times now,
so, um, again, to come back here is, is truly amazing.
(jazz music)
- Do people ever come up to you and say,
"Hey, I didn't think I could do X, Y, and Z,
and you were the reason that I could"?
- Oh yeah,
I mean, there's been, you know, especially after the shows,
and stuff like that, where people just come up and,
you know, just like you described.
I always tell people, you know, follow your dreams,
don't let anyone tell you you can't do something.
(audience clapping)
- For Inside Edition Digital,
I'm Stephanie Officer.
(gentle music)