’All Behaviors Welcome’ to New Concert Series

Carnegie Mellon University Graduate students share music for families living with autism in partnership with the Autism Society of Pittsburgh - When his family moved to Pittsburgh from Baltimore, 12-year-old Aaron Birnbaum missed something he loved from home: sensory-friendly concerts he attended with his family. The Baltimore Azure Concert Series, which invites families living with autism and related challenges to sensory-friendly performances, had previously filled that gap. The middle-school musician asked his mother, Anitra Birnbaum, to find a similar program locally. When she didn't, she decided to create one for him. After looking online for possible partners the first person she reached out to with the idea was Carnegie Mellon University's Monique Mead , director of music entrepreneurship at CMU. Mead and a team of graduate students in her Collaborative Project in Music Entrepreneurship course responded with enthusiasm. Sara Frankel, who graduated with a bachelor of fine arts degree in viola performance in May, is one of those students.