We are a strong, vibrant, creative and talented autism community!
And our SensoryFriendly Concert last night was a perfect example of this vibrancy.
It is a beautiful thing to see so many families come out to hear great live music of the fine arts, to hear autistic self advocates speaking and performing, to be completely wowed at the talent of musical autists! In an atmosphere that will accommodate, accept and respect autistic behaviors, but not gawk or exploit autistic talents. (Sadly, pretty much the complete opposite of how the media operates.) Maybe this blog post won’t get much visibility because we’re not going to hyperfocus on negative things, we don’t care! We’re hear to tell you that there is SO MUCH positivity growing in the autism community, and it all has to do with inclusion and respect!
Huge thanks to Sean Lane and Maeve Royce for being our featured artists, and three awesome music therapists who came to help out, Darcy Lipscomb, Carolyn Sonnen and Valerie McDaniel!
This is Community Music Therapy in the making folks!!
We don’t typically post pictures or videos of our events, out of respect to our audience members and their privacy. But here’s a picture of our venue last night. Church on the Rock so graciously gives us the use of this awesome space. We set the chairs on stage so that children and adults can come up and FEEL the music and interact with the performing artists. Especially for those who are hyposensitive, there is no better feeling than laying under a grand piano or touching the side of an upright bass! (Or, if you are hypersensitive to sound, we have noise reduction headphones and sensory quiet room if you need it.) Not to mention plenty of room down in front, to dance and move, to rock and flap away! We had an amazingly talented young man perform last night, a true musical autist, who played three Chopin Preludes. There are few places on the planet where you can enjoy a live performance of classical music and not worry about sitting completely still!
And one more piece of exciting news!
We are starting a NATIONAL LAUNCH of SensoryFriendly Concerts in 2013!!!!
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