- February 8, 2025
-
-
Loading
Loading
Seven years after First United Methodist Church of Port Orange donated a piano to him, now-17-year-old Jose Lora returned Friday, Aug. 11, to play a thank-you concert for the church members. He had come a long way since the first time he'd tested out the church's piano as a child.
Lora recalled that he had been playing the church's piano when someone noticed he had a talent for the instrument. At the time he had been taking piano lessons but didn't have his own piano to practice.
"All I had was this little tiny plastic keyboard. It was really bad," Lora said. "It wasn't a great platform to learn off of ... but as always, money was kind of tight."
Lora's mom had seen his knack for playing the piano and had encouraged him to start taking lessons when he was 6. His passion for playing the piano grew.
When church members found out Lora's family couldn't afford their own piano, they turned to the church thrift store, Thrift Boutique. And Store Manager Richard Feiler happened to have a piano in inventory.
"This young man was interested about playing the piano but wasn't really of a family of means," Feiler said. "So the word came to me through the thrift store, we provided him with a piano, and actually delivered it to his garage."
Lora said he remembers the day the church delivered the piano to his house, a day he calls "amazing."
According to Lora, the church members pulled up with their truck and wheeled out the piano into the garage. It needed tuning, but, at the request of the people who delivered the instrument, Lora began to play the first notes on his very own piano. Feiler, who was there that day, has since been able to see the musician's talent expand.
Lora has had the donated piano for all of those seven years.
"Since that time, he's gone and become a very accomplished classical pianist and won a lot of awards throughout the state," Feiler said. "It's pretty exciting. He's a great kid."
Lora, now a senior at Spruce Creek High School, has regularly won piano competitions while also participating in concertos and playing for his school's jazz band. He is currently preparing for college, which may include a science or engineering degree, and he wanted to do a final concert for the church before starting this new chapter of his life.
As for his future playing the piano, Lora plans to continue playing, no matter where he goes next.
"It's definitely something I'm going to do my entire life," Lora said, adding that playing at the church on Thursday was a way for him to "give back and say this piano actually did something."
