The Reactions of Special-Needs Children at Classical Concerts

In Friday’s (9/20) Wall Street Journal, Tom Fields-Meyer writes, “Dear little boy at the Hollywood Bowl, We don’t know each other, but I was hoping to meet you to thank you. You looked to be 8 or 9 years old, and you were sitting a few rows behind me during a recent performance by Joshua Bell … with the Los Angeles Philharmonic…. You occasionally accompanied them with your own spontaneous, beautiful sounds…. Your uninhibited expression gave voice to my own pleasure at hearing that breathtaking music … Listening to you also reminded me of my own adult son, who is autistic. When Ezra was a child, my wife and I sometimes hesitated to bring him along to concerts or movies for fear he might do or say the wrong thing…. Some movie theaters and indoor music-venues have added special rooms where neurodivergent people and others can make as much noise as they want … A few years ago, just as [Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society] orchestra finished a Mozart piece, a different little boy reacted with a ‘Wow!’ so loud that the audience … broke into applause. It turned out he was autistic and rarely spoke at all. An audio recording of his utterance went viral … inspiring a children’s picture book.”