Among my students is a young man who is blind, autistic, and severely developmentally challenged. He does not verbalize any aspect of his experience. Weighing the impact of his work on the other students, I have come to appreciate the extent to which both his deep caring about music and lack of facility arouse in those listening a keener awareness of their own caring as well as more meaningful connection to their own capacity for verbalizing.
It is astonishing to me that in this highly competitive area of music, particularly of piano playing, this most elusive quality - verbal precision - has been fostered by exposure to its opposite.
