Concert for children with special needs and their families

We went to a concert Thursday night. It was a special concert for children with special needs and their families. The Utah Symphony and Utah Opera offer this free concert every year. This is their statement:

'We present this concert because we know that many families cannot attend cultural events together because their special needs child acts in distracting ways. We feature our Opera Resident Artists with the Utah Symphony on the Capitol Theater Stage in a special concert where everyone understands the difficulty of keeping these children quiet in their seats.'

We've been trying to attend this concert every year, but something always came up, and we've never been able to go. This year, even though we had a hectic week, we decided that we should go. Then, of course, Marcus got sick Wednesday morning. I kept him home and had him rest a whole day. He was better by the time we needed to leave and also told me that he didn't want to miss the concert.

The theater was packed, and there were many families with a child like Anthony.  It was also the noisiest crowd I've ever seen, and nobody cared! All the families were there with one thing in common. We all understand each other, and we know each other's daily struggles and pain. We felt accepted and we were able to realize that we were not alone in this journey. It felt good.

When we were looking for the seats to sit, I automatically started saving the end seats for James and Anthony as usual (we always do this so that in case Anthony starts to make noises/gets upset, James can take him out), then I realized that we didn't have to do that tonight. So, for change, James and I could sit next to each other and relax.

They chose many well known pieces for the performance, and Marcus, of course, named them every time they started, and hummed along with the tunes. The opera songs were quite good also, and it was the first time for Rio and Marcus to listen to live opera. I was curious how they would react. Well, Marcus loved it, and Rio, not so much. I definitely think James and Rio have more in common when it comes to music.

The cutest thing happened during "Allegro Vivace from Overture to William Tell". One boy (probably 14-15 years old) stood up and started dancing. He was obviously enjoying it and very happy. That brought tears to my eyes. He (and his family) can never go to a concert like this if it were not in this kind of environment, and I was so glad to see him being given the opportunity to enjoy the music.

The last piece was "'Can Can' from Orpheus in the Underworld", and the whole audience clapped hands with the tune.

They even prepared refreshments after the concert, and everyone enjoyed yummy cookies.

What a lovely night. I hope we can attend next year's concert as well.