Music for Autism Debuts Bilingual Concerts
by Nancy Amigron and Pat Blute.
With 30% of concert go-ers at Brooklyn Public Library’s The Child’s Place for Children with Special Needs speaking Spanish natively, Willie Martinez and La Familia Sextet inspired a new interactive opportunity for our attendees. At the January 19 Latin Jazz concert at the Brooklyn Heights branch, M4A audience members were greeted by signage in both English and Spanish, an in-person translator and new interactive materials. Willie and the group forged a strong connection to the audience explaining things in English and Spanish and singing in both languages. Children and adults were in the aisles dancing and the program ended with Willie directing the audience in a two-part percussion finale.
We continued the success of the bilingual format on April 13 with Caroline Cole on harp. Heralded by audience members for her warm nature and enlightening performance, Caroline brought excellent energy to all those in attendance at this bilingual kick-off. Please hear the recount of the concert as written by Carrie Banks, Supervising Librarian at The Brooklyn Public Library:
Today’s Music for Autism concert was another rousing success. Sixty-nine concert goers and 12 volunteers braved a demonstration outside the front door and construction on almost every subway line to attend.
The concert itself was great. Caroline Cole, the harpist, played her set. Then as always, the children conducted her and finally played along with rhythm instruments. People danced along with the music, sat on the floor in front of the stage, and generally had a good time. One parent remarked at the end that last time, when Willie Martinez and the Familia Sextet played, “the music got us all excited” and this time “it took us to a calm place.” We offered Spanish interpretation of the spoken parts of the concerts and had bilingual staff, signs and volunteers.
As people were leaving I heard the question “When’s the next one?” over and over again.
Special thanks to Francisco Montaño for generously donating his time in translating all of our written materials.
