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Creating Platforms for Autistic Culture and Advocacy through Community Music Therapy

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2019 in Review at The Musical Autist

December 17, 2019 by The Musical Autist Leave a Comment

It was a momentous year at The Musical Autist, and we’re excited to reflect on all that we’ve achieved with your rockstar support in 2019!

Some of our favorite highlights from this year:

  1. We offered Sensory Friendly Concerts in partnership with TWO universities for the first time: Peabody Conservatory and Shenandoah University. These new collaborative concerts allowed us to reach new communities and reshape the perspectives of music therapy students and classical musicians across two states. Our Baltimore concert even earned us a FRONT PAGE FEATURE in the Baltimore Sun!

LOOKING AHEAD: We’re planning to roll out new consulting services in 2020, so let us know if you’re a university or symphony interested in bringing SFCs to your community. You’ll also want to save the date for our spring SFC at Peabody Conservatory: see you on March 29th at 2pm!

2. We hosted 4 coffeehouse-style Empowerment Jam Sessions at two locations in Anne Arundel County: Our Shepherd Lutheran Church and the Maryland Hall Cafe! Jam sessions are inclusive gatherings all about sharing music and connecting with others in a relaxed environment.

Stay tuned: See what a typical jam session looks like in the video below, and keeping checking our social media for upcoming EJS meet-up dates!

3. Our newest program, Musical Autist Troupe, had its biggest year EVER in 2019! TMA was able to provide 12 reduced and free tuition scholarships for neurodivergent musicians to attend Troupe, which meets weekly at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts. Troupe had two epic performances this year at Peabody Conservatory this April and at Disability Awareness Day in Annapolis this October. Catch their most recent performance: a totally rad mash-up of “Old Town Road” and “Country Roads” below. We dare you not to sing along!

BONUS: Thanks to your generous donations on #GivingTuesday, we can now provide over 25 FULL SCHOLARSHIPS TO TROUPE PARTICIPANTS IN 2020! Registration for our winter/spring session is now LIVE, so now is the perfect time to join us if you’ve never rocked out with Troupe before.

Register here: OG Troupe (ages 14+) and Troupe Jr (ages 8-14).

As we start the new year–and DECADE–we are filled with gratitude for the many allies, musical autists, community partners, families, professional musicians, universities, and students we now consider part of the TMA family. Let’s make 2020 our best year yet!

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Filed Under: Community Music Therapy, Empowerment Jam Sessions, Sensory Friendly Concerts, Troupe, Uncategorized Tagged With: Autistic, Empowerment Jam Sessions, Musical Autist Troupe, Neurodiversity, Sensory Friendly Concerts, Troupe, Year in Review

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Jan 26

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Jan 17

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Today we would like to feature Micah @rock_on_micah who is a 19 year old autistic musician. He has had a love for music for many years and he started an all  music YouTube channel in June 2020. Together with his dad they are a two man band called The Positive Autism. Micah is on vocals, keyboards and harmonica. His dad plays guitar and bass. They write and produce original songs, covers and even take requests! In November Micah released his first album of original songs called Autism Rocks! I Am Micah on iTunes, Amazon and all the digital platforms. Way to go Micah!! You can also find him on his YouTube channel Autism Rocks- Music by the Positive Autism. Micah thank you so much for sharing your talent and your story with us 😃 #autisticmusician #elevatingautisticmusicians @themusicalautist

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