PEMBROKE PINES, FLA. (WSVN) - A South Florida music prodigy is taking the world by storm, one note at a time.
Jacob Velasquez is a young piano man who plays the guitar and the cello, too.
The 13-year-old from Pembroke Pines started playing piano when he was just a toddler.
“My first instrument was piano. I started when I was about 3 years old by watching my dad play,” Velasquez said.
The drums came next, and he taught himself how to play.
Last year came a huge opportunity for Velasquez — an audition for “America’s Got Talent.”
“My name’s Jacob Velasquez, I’m 12 years old, and I play the piano,” he could be heard saying before his audition on the NBC show.
“That was, hands down, the best day of my entire life,” Velasquez said.
The excitement then turned to disappointment.
“I found out I wouldn’t get to move on to the next round, which happened to a lot of people who auditioned that season, cause of coronavirus,” he said.
He was heartbroken but decided to use what had happened as motivation.
“During the quarantine, I decided to learn and pick up a bunch of new instruments, so here I am right now,” said Velasquez.
Even though he just picked up playing guitar over the last year, the 13-year-old has quite a few in his collection and some have some cool stories behind them.
One of the guitars was sent to him by a fan in Budapest, Hungary.
Though he has fans around the world, Velasquez said it was often hard making friends at home, as he is on the autism spectrum.
“I have PDD-NOS which stands for Pervasive Developmental Disorder – Not Otherwise Specified, which is similar to Asperger’s Syndrome. It’s like Asperger’s with a speech delay,” he said.
It is clear that diagnosis isn’t stopping Velasquez from rocking on and inspiring others to do the same.
“Just because you have some sort of disability or some kind of diagnosis doesn’t mean you aren’t capable of great things,” he said.
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