Baltimore Boy Wins Amateur Night Playing The Trumpet At NYC's Apollo Theater
BALTIMORE (WJZ)-- A local high school student is in the national spotlight after winning amateur night at the Apollo. As he found out, only pure talent can win over the sold out crowd in Harlem.
Mary Bubala has the story.
Baltimore's Keith Davenport brings down the house, winning amateur night at the Apollo.
"I was just like 'Oh, my gosh!' " he said.
He's just 15, a sophomore at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute-- a true phenom.
Keith Davenport started playing the trumpet when he was eight years old-- just happened to pick it up in music class at his elementary school, and he was hooked.
"After I got down all the keys with the fingering, it came because I got my ear from my father," he said.
He won $2,000 at the Apollo after rising to the top of more than 350 other young amateurs.
"I am going to put $1,000 in a savings bond, and then the other $1,000, I am going to split with me and my parents because they put a lot of money into getting me to the Apollo," he said.
"People kept saying he's amazing. 'I can't believe he's so little, he's so young,'" said Fay Davenport, Keith's mother. "And they were saying, 'We don't know what he's going to become when he grows up if he's this good at such a young age.' "
Keith Davenport also plays middle linebacker on his high school's football team, and he is on the wrestling team in the winter, along with taking music classes at The Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University.
He will be featured at the Apollo again on Dec. 11 at the Annual Holiday Showcase.
