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When child prodigy José André Montaño visited Wichita in 2017 to perform at the José André Montaño Family Concert, he made a stop at KSN TV to talk about his immense talent. The young jazz pianist and composer who is blind and from Cochabamba, Bolivia, was asked how he came to play jazz, and he delightedly answered,

I like jazz because it permits me to improvise and to be free in the music, because I like to be free in music and I like to transmit to all the people feelings, my feelings. I like to transmit all that.

Once the Kennedy Center learned of Montaño, they sponsored his and his family’s immigration to his new home of Washington D.C. A 2019 recipient of the VSA International Young Soloist Award for young musicians with disabilities, Montaño has performed in Italy, Canada, Malaysia, Finland, Brazil, Peru, Mexico, and Colombia. Some of his notable performances include invitations to organizations such as the World Bank, Washington Performing Arts, Envision, the Library of Congress, and the U.S. House of Representatives.

“Music is a feeling for me,” Montaño told the KSN TV interviewer, “and when I play piano, I feel a lot of things. I feel happy, I feel so excited.” The now high school student, who began his musical, self-taught journey at the age of 4, has a sound that draws inspiration from Jazz, Rock, Blues, Bossa Nova, and Latin American Folklore.

Montaño’s gift is matched only by his love for others and his joy. When asked what he would tell other children with disabilities, he knew just what advice he had to offer:

I have a really nice message to them, and I’m gonna say this. Every time a boy has a dream…he has to still dream it until it is real. If you don’t dream you cannot get your goals.

What a gift for us that we have the opportunity to witness the manifestation of Montaño’s dream each and every time he sits down to “improvise and [be] free in the music.”