Sensory-friendly concert series celebrates Jewish Disability Awareness & Inclusion Month
InclusionAzure Family Concerts

Sensory-friendly concert series celebrates Jewish Disability Awareness & Inclusion Month

Azure holds concerts in parks, libraries and synagogues like Temple Ohav Shalom, which recently formed an accessibility committee.

Musicians Tino Cardenes (left) and Aaron Birnbaum perform at Temple Ohav Shalom. (Photo by Abigail Hakas)
Musicians Tino Cardenes (left) and Aaron Birnbaum perform at Temple Ohav Shalom. (Photo by Abigail Hakas)

It’s far from the typical concert scene: attendees waving scarves, wandering around, playing with fidget toys and even jumping.

But it’s typical at the sensory-friendly Azure Family Concerts, a program of Autism-Pittsburgh, where “all behaviors are welcome.” For Jewish Disability Awareness & Inclusion Month, the “Unlimited Sound” concert on Feb. 2 at Temple Ohav Shalom highlighted the work of disabled artists.

Throughout the concert, attendees were handed egg shakers and scarves to twirl, encouraged to sing along or escape the noise in a quiet tent filled with toys through a door in the back of the room.

It attracted a wide range of people: Older folks came to hear the free music and parents brought excited young kids.

Before the concert began, a child brought in too many stuffed animals to count, plopping them on the ground. While at other concerts that might get a scolding, it was welcome here. Here, atypical concert behaviors get a smile from other attendees, who split their focus between the musicians and playful children.

Anitra Birnbaum, executive director of Azure, started the concert series after her family moved from Baltimore to Pittsburgh in 2020. Back in Baltimore, her oldest son, Aaron, who is on the autism spectrum, enjoyed the ability to freely express himself at Azure concerts.

“It was the only family outing that we knew would be successful,” Birnbaum said. “It was really wonderful to find a non-judgmental, friendly environment where my son could just be himself.”

But after moving, the Birnbaum family realized there was no option like it in Pittsburgh, so Birnbaum took it upon herself to start an Azure concert series here. A Jewish woman and member of Temple Ohav Shalom, she sees it as a “tikkun olam project.”

Aaron, 16, started playing saxophone after attending Azure concerts when he was younger. At the Feb. 2 concert, he played “What the World Needs Now is Love.”

Other pieces, such as Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” and Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours),” were performed after a brief history lesson from Leah Huber, Azure’s artistic director. She explained how each piece was composed by a disabled artist; Beethoven was deaf and Stevie Wonder is blind.

The concert featured songs that had connections to other disabled artists. Huber sang “Defying Gravity” from “Wicked” after explaining how Marissa Bode was the first wheelchair user to depict the disabled Nessarose in the 2024 movie adaptation.

As Huber projected slides about each of the disabled artists onto the wall, a child wearing headphones walked in front of the projector. The shadow cast elicited a few quiet smiles from audience members.

The almost monthly concert series typically draws in around 100 people with a wide range in age and ability. The next performance, “Enchanted Melodies,” is a musical opera about a fairytale princess on March 9 in Sewickley, and registration can be found at autismpittsburgh.org.

Azure holds concerts in parks, libraries and synagogues like Temple Ohav Shalom, which recently formed an accessibility committee.

Birnbaum is the committee’s chair. While Temple Ohav Shalom already had accommodations, Birnbaum realized the website lacked information about accessibility.

Forming the committee was a way to ensure that those who need accommodations know they are welcome.

“How do people know you love and appreciate them if you don’t tell them?” Birnbaum asked.

During the concert, Sage Herman Dietzel’s daughter Daisy played with egg shakers and a scarf. It was their first time attending an Azure concert.

“She’s only 4, so being able to move around and feel comfortable to do that and not have people frustrated that little ones are making noise or moving around is great,” Herman Dietzel said.

Herman Dietzel typically takes her daughter to outdoor concerts where there isn’t the same expectation of quiet stillness. While her daughter isn’t on the autism spectrum, Herman Dietzel emphasized the value of attending the concert.

“I think it’s important to bring my kids to all different types of events and just be around all different types of people,” she said. “I just love how this is welcoming of everybody and all different abilities and different needs.”

Daisy moved around as the musicians performed: Huber on vocals, Tino Cardenes on piano, Johannah Dickenson on oboe, Andrew Zimlinghaus on saxophone and Emmanuel Houndo on violin.

The musicians performed classical, jazz and Broadway music. While the genres vary from concert to concert, the theme for February’s concert was simple: joy.

And that joy was evident as one child ditched his fidget spinner, tossing it onto the floor in front of him, to wave a purple scarf in colorful arcs above his head. After the concert, attendees were invited to touch instruments during an instrument petting zoo, and the children quickly began to make their own music.

For Birnbaum, the positive reception to the concert series is indicative of the power of music.

“It’s just a great alternative to using language to be able to connect with people and express yourself,” Birnbaum said. “I think it’s a great way to help people who have difficulty interacting with others to have some kind of a common ground where language doesn’t have to get in the way of that.” PJC

Abigail Hakas is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.

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