"After a brief moment of silence, a child in the audience exclaimed, ‘Wow!’. The awe in his voice made the whole audience and ensemble erupt into laughter and applause..."

"... with the orchestra’s CEO David Snead describing it as 'one of the most wonderful moments I’ve experienced in the concert hall."



"After the concert, the orchestra began looking for the child – and now, the boy’s grandfather has got in touch. Nine-year-old Ronan is a huge music fan, says his grandfather, Stephen Mattin. Mattin, who took his grandson to the concert, said he 'talked about nothing else for weeks.' Ronan didn’t mean to be disruptive, he told WGBH, explaining that his grandson is on the autism spectrum, and expresses himself in a different way to 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. Mattin reached out to the orchestra after his sister-in-law saw on television that the Handel and Haydn Society was looking for the 'wow kid.'... 'You know, everybody’s different. Everybody has different ways of expressing themselves,' he said. 'I think people in general, society’s becoming more tolerant or understanding of the differences between people.'"