I started taking piano lessons when I was 6 years old. I loved the music of Chopin and Schumann and was thrilled when I grew tall enough to reach the pedals, but it wasn’t until graduate school when I learned “Phrygian Gates” by John Adams that anyone talked to me specifically about the wide range of possibilities with piano pedals. Now it is one of my favorite things to teach and explore with students.

Autism (or autism spectrum disorder) is a pervasive developmental disorder that affects 1 in 54 children in the United States, according to a 2020 report from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.