Derek Amato was 40 years old, lived in Denver, and could not read a single musical note. In October 2006, during a reunion with friends, he tried to catch a football pass and fell headfirst into the shallow end of a pool. The left side of his skull hit the concrete directly.
Four days after the accident, sitting in front of a keyboard at a friend’s house, his hands began to move on their own. He was playing. And he wasn’t playing badly. Without a single lesson, without years of practice, with skills that most people take decades to develop. Doctors diagnosed him with acquired savant syndrome. An injury to the left hemisphere that, according to the theory, “releases” the right hemisphere linked to creativity. There are between 32 and 130 documented cases in the world.
Amato lost 35% of his hearing forever and today lives with chronic migraines. But he also left his career in telecommunications, published an album and a book, and found in that blow the only a new direction.
