Symphony Magazine features Autism Community Program

The fall issue of Symphony magazine features several American orchestras’ programs for children and adults on the autism spectrum. The story highlights the NJSO’s Autism Community Program:

Perhaps the most extensive autism-friendly orchestra series takes place at the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, which also serves a state with the highest reported rates of autism, at one in 45 children. The New Jersey Symphony launched a series of chamber music concerts in 2012 that now involves seventeen performances at ten partner schools and community centers. Last season, it reached 1,600 people across two counties, according to Marshell Jones Kumahor, the New Jersey Symphony’s vice president of education and community engagement. This reflects the orchestra’s mission to serve the entire state, she says, and to develop stronger ties with other arts and community groups.

The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra’s program started with a request from a longtime subscriber who said that her autistic son was held “rapt” by the sound of an orchestra. After some exploration of the topic, the orchestra formed an eleven-member advisory group to study the issue, and it raised seed money through a $15,000 Getty Education and Community Investment Grant from the Leauge of American Orchestras (funding is now provided by the Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey and Johnson & Johnson).

Jones Kumahor says the orchestra regularly surveys its audiences through its partner organizations, which include schools and learning centers in Newark, Irvington and Montclair, New Jersey. Unlike some arts groups, which have focused on the most “high-functioning” end of the autism spectrum, Jones Kumahor notes that the NJSO has sought “to serve as wide a range as possible on the spectrum,” which makes for a greater challenge as the lower-functioning listeners tend to have little or no language, greater mental challenges, and little awareness of people or social expectations. So far, 26 out of 53 members of the orchestra have given chamber music concerts at schools and learning centers as part of the program.

More information on the NJSO Autism Community Program.

Read the Symphony story online. (page 64)