Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1024340
4 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 9 SEPTEMBER 2018 THIS WEEK MUSIC Could you tell us a little bit about Music Speaks? How did the idea for the event first come about, and what motivated you to carry the idea forward? The idea behind Music Speaks stemmed a couple of years ago as my daughter Ales- sia was growing her passion towards mu- sic and showing significant improvement considering her challenges with autism. Autism is a developmental disorder which is characterised by significant difficulties in social interaction and communication, as well as restricted and repetitive pat- terns of behaviour, interests and activi- ties. One can imagine that these traits will pose enormous challenges for the child to communicate their simple needs, and find a place and a purpose in life. As a young child, Alessia was always full of life and energy. We constantly sought to help her communicate and find a way to channel her energy into some- thing constructive. We tried multiple approaches to help feel fulfilled, which included gymnastics, horse riding, swim- ming and drawing but she never showed enough inclination that would drive us to persevere. While Alessia was growing up, we real- ised that she thoroughly enjoyed music and could keep a beat while listening to songs. She also used to make a random noise and rhythmically place it in between phrases that would totally make sense and give the song an added flavour, so much so that we ended up adding these noises to the song ourselves. Truth be told, however, our musical journey had a bumpy start. We tried dif- ferent approaches to teach her music and at first none of them were successful, un- til we joined Malta School of Music and that's when it all began. The key ingredi- ent was the teaching method used by her teacher – Rosetta Debattista, a trained pianist, music educator and therapist. She introduced music to Alessia in such a vibrant and dynamic way. Until today, I remain in awe of how she managed to teach her, considering Alessia's limited understanding of language at the time. Alessia started to flourish, she seemed TEODOR RELJIC speaks to organiser Cynthia Bonnici about the upcoming concert Music Speaks, featuring the talents of her daughter Alessia on the piano, along with a number of other local musicians, and held with the aim of raising awareness about autism Music for empathy, music for understanding Alessia Bonnici, daughter of Cynthia who is organising the event, features on the piano