Music for Autism by Orchestra of St John's

For over 20 years, Music for Autism has provided a programme of accessible workshops delivered in special schools and designed specifically for young people with autism. OSJ Music for Autism engages with over 6,000 young people each year, and is offered entirely free of charge to participating schools. Young people with autism, prefer to move when listening to music, perhaps dancing or responding physically to the music, vocalizing and considering this their access to live classical music is sometimes limited. Two or three times a week, through the year, small groups of members of the orchestra go into special schools, where many young people with autism are educated, and give short concerts to groups of students. They do so with the same professionalism and quality of performance as they produce for any other audience. The important difference is that the students can respond to the music exactly as they wish. Visits by OSJ musicians mean that young people with autism can have similar access to the experience of live classical music as those of their peers who can meet the behavioural expectations of formal concert attendance. Due to various degrees of lockdown, MfA has continued unabated, taking live music to children and schools remotely through Zoom.