page_title: Matthew Whitaker (pianist)
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Matthew Whitaker (pianist) / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: Musicians Jon Batiste and Matthew Whitaker playing piano and melodica for a "Juneteenth celebration + voter registration recital" called "We Are" on June 19, 2020. On the steps of the Brooklyn Public Library in Grand Army Plaza.
context_page_description: Matthew Whitaker is an American jazz pianist. Blind since birth, he has performed at venues including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center and the Apollo Theater, where, at 10, he was the opening performer for Stevie Wonder induction into the Apollo Theater's Hall of Fame. Whitaker is the subject of Thrive, a 13-minute documentary about "the prodigious talent and irrepressible spirit of a musically precocious 12-year-old blind boy."
context_section_description: On March 6, 2017, he released his first album, Outta the Box. Other musicians on the album include Christian McBride, Dave Stryker, Will Calhoun, Sammy Figueroa, Melissa Walker,  and James Carter.
  In April 2017, Whitaker performed on the Ellen Degeneres Show and competed on Fox's Showtime at the Apollo, winning first place. Whitaker has toured Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Among other venues, he has performed at the main concert hall at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C and the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall.
caption: Whitaker playing a melodica in June 2020
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