Meet Derek Amato

Today we’d like to introduce you to Derek Amato.

Derek, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
On October 27th, 2006, I was in Sioux Falls, SD to visit my mother and decided to go to a pool party/BBQ to catch up with some old friends. At one point, someone tossed a football towards me and I dove into the shallow end of a swimming pool to catch it. Inadvertently, I struck the upper left side of my head on bottom of the pool. Right away, I came up for air, but I briefly blacked out and again submerged underwater. When I came to seconds later, I searched for the edge of the pool, where my best friends, Richard Sturm and Bill Pederson, quickly pulled me from the water. I blacked out again and fell to the ground. Rick and Bill carried me back to the apartment nearby, but all I remember after hitting my head is the smell of baked beans. I refused to accept that I had been injured and simply wanted to lie down for a rest. Rick promptly called my mother (she had been through my six prior head traumas during childhood), and she insisted that I go to the emergency room.

But, I refused to go, so Rick took me to her house instead. Upon arrival, she took me directly to the emergency room, and I was examined for a suspected brain injury. They kept me overnight for observation. Thankfully, they did not find any evidence of hemorrhaging in my brain and released me the next morning. I slept for five days under the care of my mother, remembering nothing of the accident. On the 5th day, I woke up and decided to start getting prepared to return back to Denver. I called Rick to say a quick goodbye, but he picked me up later that day to hang out before I left town. And, as I was sitting in his apartment, there was an old dusty digital keyboard sitting in the corner. While we were talking, I felt an immense pull to go over and tinker with the keyboard. When I sat down at this unfamiliar musical item, my hands immediately performed as if they had been trained a lifetime. I played non-stop for the next five hours. In that moment, Rick and I knew we had witnessed something amazingly profound, and being Christian kids, we both had that “It must be God’s work” look on our faces at exactly the same time.

The next morning, I had to figure out how to tell my mother that I could suddenly play the piano, and after a serious head trauma, I could only imagine what she was about to say, “You’re nuts, Derek.” So, the following day, I took my mother to a nearby music store. I sat her down next to me at the piano. When the salesman came over to turn it on, he asked me, “How long have you been playing the piano?” I said, “Well, almost five hours now, Sir!” He rolled his eyes, chuckled, and said: “You sure caught on quickly.” I played for about three minutes before my mother started crying. I turned the piano off and headed out to the car. We had one of the most quietest drives homes that I’ve ever experienced in my life. We just knew that my life had been forever changed in an instant! After the accident, my mom has always said to me, “You were chosen to deliver a message, Derek.” Over the next few years, I worked with Dr. Darold Treffert at the Wisconsin Medical Society in regard to my condition in hopes of learning how to fully understand and harness this new gift, known as Acquired Savant Syndrome.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The struggles and challenges have been far more than I ever expected! Coming to terms early on as to how I would make this my living, rather than my hobby would be complicated since you don’t just magically get a check in the mail after being diagnosed as a “savant.” The financial struggles are certainly real at the onset of starting a new business, especially in the entertainment industry. If you don’t play, you don’t get paid. It’s just that simple. The roadblocks created from the brain injury would interfere with my expectations to hopefully perform live; particularly, the bright lights, loud noises, and screaming people would all be incredibly challenging obstacles to making this a reality from the very beginning.

In addition, I was struggling with my hearing in my left ear, and couldn’t find a comfortable way to be out in public dealing with all the noise factors, until I put on a winter beanie one day. It seemed to balance out the levels, so I could tolerate all those heightened little noises, such as cars driving by, people talking, silverware clinging in restaurants, and even the wind or leaves hitting the ground. Yes, every single sound is a specific orchestrated musical note of composition to me. So imagine if you’re walking down a New York city street… every different noise or sound experienced is converted into a different musical instrument and/or notation, and, yes, even barking dogs! So, it’s like walking through life with this magical non-stop symphony going on right in front of me…every second of the day! I’ve come to love and embrace it, despite experiencing a subtle loss in my short-term memory and the subsequent headaches that have resulted from the accident. However, over time, the headaches have become less frequent, but have become so much more violent when I do experience them a couple of times a month or so. I don’t like them at all!

Please tell us more about your work. What do you do? What do you specialize in? What sets you apart from competition?
Today, I am most known for being the only person in the world to experience sudden musical genius and synesthesia as the result of a traumatic brain injury, but I would prefer to be most famous for the “no hitter” I pitched in Little League… Lol! My company is the TriStar Agency, a boutique entertainment management agency. My philosophy was always to have my closest friends directing the company that manages my musical, speaking, and television/film career; however, I am actively involved in all areas of the daily aspects required to keep this wheel running. Essentially, we divide my calendar and projects into separate categories so that I can continue to expose myself to different opportunities throughout the year, which include working within the realm of music, film, and TV, as well as keynote speaking and music production projects. Ultimately, I prefer a variety of items to challenge me and keep things fresh.

In my opinion, I specialize most in delivering keynote presentations or talk and play performances tailored to keep my audience always questioning the possibilities of the “human potential” and the gifts that are truly present in each and every one of us! I have tried to use my God-given gift as a vehicle to simply bring attention to the areas in this world that I believe need a tremendous amount of love, such as homelessness, drug addiction, hunger, and mental illness. These are all intensely important areas within our community that I continuously strive to be involved with! Besides being a savant, there is nothing that sets me apart from others. I love, bleed red, and cry salty tears just like everyone else. But, as some might say, I’m just a bit weirder!

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
When I performed live with musical prodigy Tony DeBlois, that was certainly a proud moment, and there was Rex Lewis Clack as well, wow, this is a hard one! Although, when filming “Human Limits” for the Coors Light marketing campaign “Climb Your Mountain”, I chose to film the music scene at the Families of Autistic Children of Tidewater in Virginia Beach, as I was personally quite fond of this organization and I had attended their fundraisers for the last four years. After we finished filming with the children, I went out and stood in the middle of the grass field where I had earlier played piano for them. All of the children swarmed around me and this huge huddle began to actually smother me, in the best possible way! As I am giving high fives, hugging everyone, and simply enjoying the moment, I feel a tug at the bottom of my shirt, and I look down, and its Hank, the five year old that sat front row with ear muffs on for my piano performance earlier. He pulled me down to my knees, hugged me and pressed his face against my face for what seemed like an eternity. I think that’s the moment I reflect upon most often, so I would have to say Hank was my favorite, as he validated my intense desire to somehow connect with those kids that day, I was pretty darn proud.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.derekamatolive.com
• Email: derekamatomusic@gmail.com
• Instagram: www.instagram/derekamato
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/derek-amato
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/derekamato

Image Credit:
Cade Martin Photography – Southwest Airlines Mag Cover
David Brown Photography – France

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