“The kid who ‘put everybody in stitches’ at Boston Symphony Hall has been found,” writes Kaitlyn Locke on Thursday (5/9) at Boston radio station WGBH. At the Handel and Haydn Society’s concert last Sunday, “9-year-old Ronan Mattin was so swept away by the music that he loudly exclaimed—for the whole auditorium to hear—’Wow!’ … The audience burst into laughter and cheers. So charmed were the Handel and Haydn Society by the child’s exclamation that they asked the public to help find him, hoping to reward the sweet sentiment with a trip to meet the artistic director….. Ronan didn’t mean to be disruptive, said his grandfather, Stephen Mattin, who took Ronan to the concert. His grandson … is on the autism spectrum, and often expresses himself differently than other people. ‘I can count on one hand the number of times that [he’s] spontaneously ever come out with some expression of how he’s feeling,’ Mattin said…. The Society has invited them to meet the artistic director … Ronan is a huge music fan, his grandfather said. He took the 9-year-old to another concert in Boston a few months ago, and he ‘talked about nothing else for weeks.’ ”
Posted May 13, 2019
