Music Producer, Author Speaking About Adversity At BCCC Thursday Night

Music producer and author Simon Illa will be speaking at Bucks County Community College Thursday, Nov. 17 as part of the schools' Bucks Live! fall speaker series, according to the college.

Illa's lecture, "The Power of Adversity," will begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Kevin and Sima Zlock Performing Arts Center on the Newtown campus, 275 Swamp Road, Newtown. Tickets are $10 for general admission; $5 for seniors, students, Bucks County Community College alumni and college employees; and free for BCCC students with a current ID.

After the lecture, Illa will be available for a meet-and-greet and will be signing his book "Tracking Identity – a Memoir by Brad Gilbert."

“We all have strengths and weaknesses,” Illa said in a press release. “Know your strengths and find ways to use what others may perceive as weaknesses and embrace them. This is a topic that would apply to people in most aspects of their lives. By using my own personal story, I will show how my focus on my abilities – instead of my ‘disabilities’ – has dictated my life path.”

Illa will also host a masterclass on "Insight of Music as a Business" at 2 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 17 Kevin and Sima Zlock Performing Arts Center. The master class is free and open to the public.

"Illa is a writer and music producer who has risen to the top of the industry against all odds," the college said in a press release. "He uses a wheelchair because of a congenital disease, but that hasn’t stopped him from reaching the height of his profession."

Illa earned an East Coast Emmy nomination for his music for NBC’s “Tribute to 9/11” in 2003; was dubbed “Philadelphia's Hottest Producer” by Blender Magazine in 2006; and “one of the world’s foremost and most phenomenal musical producers” by Urban Mogul magazine in 2008, according to the college.

His production credits include soundtrack work for “American Rap Stars” and “Invincible,” and music for Major League Baseball and the NFL, according tot he college.

Photo courtesy Bucks County Community College