Sunday, February 3, 2019 - 3:00pm

2365 Pine Ave, Vero Beach, FL 32960


RAVEL   Piano Concerto in G Major
ELGAR  Cello Concerto in E minor
BEETHOVEN  Piano Concerto No. 1
WILT  Simple Sarabande

Michael Hall, principal guest conductor
Jacob Velazquez, piano
Isaac Moorman, cello
Monet Jowers, piano

Three prodigious talents -- one unforgettable concert.    Over ten seasons, Aaron Collins and the musicians of your Space Coast Symphony have worked with hundreds of talented young musicians through various educational programs and concerts.   This electric program will feature three of our favorites.   Sixteen year old, Monet Jowers performs one of the most-loved concertos of all time, Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major.  Isaac Moorman, also sixteen years of age, grew up in and with the SCSO.   Moorman will perform Elgar's Cello Concerto in E minor, an autumnal and introspective work — music of intensity and passion, a meditation on life post-World War I.    Eleven year old phenom and superstar, Jacob Velazquez returns to perform Beethoven's First Concerto.   The willful streak that carried Beethoven through so much personal hardship was already well developed in the First Piano Concerto, his proud and unbending bid to fill the mighty large shoes of Mozart.   The program is rounded out with Kevin Wilt's gorgeous and somber, Simple Sarabande.

Artist Information


Kevin Wilt (b. 1984) composes music for a variety of ensembles that balances sophistication with accessibility, and experimentation with solid craftsmanship.   Composer John Corigliano praised his expert orchestration and beautiful writing, while the Bloomington Herald wrote, “[his music] has a keen sense of mood and tonal balance.”    Kevin recently composed Running on Rooftops for Michael Francis and The Florida Orchestra in honor of their 50th anniversary season. He won the Fresh Squeezed Opera Call for Scores with his chamber opera, Prix Fixe, and the Musical Chairs Chamber Ensemble Composer Search. He was awarded a grant by the Atlantic Coast Conference Band Directors Association to create Urban Impressions, a multimovement work for large wind ensemble. He was a finalist for the ASCAP/CBDNA Frederick Fennel Prize, the Symphony Number One Call for Scores III, the Hartford Opera Theater Call for Scores, and the American Prize in both the band and chamber music categories.

Recent performances include those by the Sydney Contemporary Orchestra, the Boston New Music Initiative, Fifth House Ensemble, the h2 Quartet, Project Fusion, the Apollo Fund, SHUFFLE Concert, the Mexico City Woodwind Quintet, ensembles at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, the University of Texas at Austin, Florida State University, the University of Kansas, the University of Oklahoma, Michigan State University, Kennesaw State University, as well as a reading by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra under Maestro Leonard Slatkin.

Kevin is equally at home composing for film and television, earning him a Michigan Emmy® Award Nomination for Best Musical Composition. Other film projects include The Inevitable, The Happy Couple, a string quartet for the short film Renegade, and The Wars of Other Men.

He holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Composition from Michigan State University, where he studied with Ricardo Lorenz. He completed his Masters Degree in Music Composition at MSU, working with Jere Hutcheson and Charles Ruggiero, and his Bachelors Degree in Music Composition and Theory from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, where he studied with James Hartway. He is an Assistant Professor of Music and Composer-in-Residence at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.   His works are published by Whistling Vine Music.

Jacob is an eleven year old musician with PDDNOS (a form of autism). He began taking piano lessons at the tender age of four, and by age five caught the attention of media outlets like Good Morning America, The View, Telemundo, CNN, and Headline News. Jacob has also performed on “The Steve Harvey Show” and “The Harry Show”.   By six years old Jacob was in the studio recording his first self titled album “Jacob”.

He made his debut with The Space Coast Symphony Orchestra at just eight years old and has since performed with The Hallandale Symphonic Orchestra, The Sugar Pops Orchestra and the Imperial Symphony Orchestra.

Jacob has been invited to perform on stage in concert with Harry Connick Jr and he was personally invited by Taylor Swift to her tour after hearing him play.

Jacob trains with world renowned professor, Giselle Brodsky, Co-Founder and Artistic Director of the Miami International Piano Festival and the Academy.    Jacob is currently authoring his first children’s book and is being filmed for a documentary “The Colorful World of Jacob Velazquez”.    For more information on Jacob please visit www.JacobVelazquez.com and TheColorfulWorldMovie.com.

Isaac Moorman, 16, is a pianist and cellist attending Satellite High School in Satellite Beach. He was born in Malaysia and raised in the United States. He started playing piano at age four. At age six, Isaac earned 2nd place at the Sonatina-Sonata Competition at St.Petersburg College, in Florida. At age nine, he earned an Honorable Prize at the Young Artist Competition, Space Coast Pops, Florida. In 2011, he participated in The Washington International Piano Festival, where his coaches included Nelita True, Yuri Didenko, Nikita Fitenko, Xun Pan and Ivo Kaltchev.

Isaac was selected to perform at Kennedy Center through audition during the festival. He participated in the All State and All County festival during 2014-2018. In the summer of 2012, he performed at a benefit concert at the University of Science in Penang. Isaac performs with Space Coast Symphony Orchestra, Central Florida Winds and performs chamber music with Quartet Movement, an organization promoting education of chamber music. During his free time, he mentors younger cellists at Delaura Middle school. Currently, Isaac studies piano with Irina Wolynez and cello under the tutelage of Joan Markstein.

Monet Jowers is a rising junior at Timber Creek High School with a passion for music and a keen interest in science. She has been a Florida All-State Band member for five consecutive years, and was principal horn of the 9/10 band this past year. Having studied piano for 12 years, she has delved into more piano performance opportunities this year, which resulted in winning her high school's concerto competition, being selected as a semi-finalist for the Ocala Symphony Young Artist Competition, and attending Kinhaven Summer Music Camp this summer.

In her eighth grade year, Monet won the Florida State Science and Engineering Fair Grand Award for biology, and now hopes to compete in the senior division in junior and senior year. She looks forward to pursuing a career in immuno-oncology alongside piano and horn studies with a potential double major in college.