Media Article
The Charitable Sound of Music
Featured in the New Canaan Advertiser
When people think of kids with autism, “you always hear about consuming the community’s resources,” says New Canaan resident Mary Harrison. It’s particularly rewarding that her son, Jewels, who is autistic, has been able to give back to the community that has supported him, she says.
Jewels is about to turn 13, the age when he’ll have his Bar Mitzvah at Temple Beth El in Stamford and wanted to find a way to include a customary community service project. “Because Jewels has autism, this was problematic,” Harrison said, until she discussed the matter with Rabbi Joshua Hammerman and Jewels’ music teacher, Karen Nisenson, founder and director of arts of Arts for Healing in New Canaan.
“You know, Jewels is such a beautiful pianist,” Harrison recalls Nisenson saying, and the idea came up for Jewels to play piano for donations, asking only that listeners donate what they are able. “Jewels has a special gift that sets him apart,” Harrison told the Advertiser. “The piano is his voice. He uses his gift to help programs which will benefit other kids with special needs and feed those in need through the Food Bank”.
“And he is not the only special needs boy or girl that can give back to the community that has nurtured him,” she notes.
Jewels’ performances began in June, when he played at the New Canaan Inn. He was able to raise $677. and Mary Harrison says she and her family – including Jewels’ father, David, and younger brother, Nathaniel were happy at the response. That’s when this latest recital took shape.
“Now, it looks like a lot of people are going to come,” Mary Harrison said before the performance, donations from which benefitted Circle of Friends in Westport, the Food Banks of New Canaan and Stamford, and SPED NET (Special Education Network) New Canaan. About 40 had been expected to attend, but a head count at the recital put the crowd at about 55-60.
Mary Harrison noted that autism affects people of all religions, social backgrounds, race and nationality, which creates a larger, global community of those connected to it. Jewels brother Nathaniel joined in the recital, opening with Mozart’s “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik,” and Jewels followed up with a program featuring Mozart, Beethoven, Clementi and later even a little jazz, with Vince Guaraldi’s “Linus and Lucy-Charlie Brown’s Greatest Hits.”
Jewels’ therapists, Matthew MacDonald and Jeanine Sam of the SEED Center (Center for Social Enrichment and Education Development) in Stamford helped him focus on his music as Jewels sailed adeptly through fast intricate finger movements. Nisenson later spoke of how much work it’d taken for Jewels to learn that coordination, requiring extraordinary effort for his hands to be able to play the notes his mind already could see plainly.
Jewels does not read music but is able to hear and reproduce it in detail. Innovative rows of pictures and symbols helped him identify and associate songs to play, his mother said, and each time he completed one, Jewels added a check-mark before moving on – an important part of his focus and progress.
The performance was quite a hit. “His recital literally blew us away. He was amazing.” said Steven Lander, executive director of Temple Beth El. “You could take piano lessons for 15 years and not be able to play like that,” commented one attendee after the recital wrapped up.
People again were asked to donate what they could, and the Harrisons were thrilled that the recital raised some $1,200, bringing the total Jewels raised for charitable causes to nearly $1,900. Jewels’ Bar Mitzvah takes place in June.
“I am quite proud of him. This is a dream come true,” Mary Harrison told the Advertiser. “Please God, may he be able to light up the lives of others through his beautiful music.”