Inspirational musician highlights Inclusive Schools Week

Brittany Maier is a gifted musician. She can play any requested song by memory, create her own compositions and identify which notes were struck on the keyboard just by listening to them.

Oh, she is also blind and autistic.

Maier helped South Side High School celebrate its Inclusive Schools Week by performing in front of almost 200 people in the auditorium on Dec. 7. It was an emotional and interactive show that encouraged audience participation and taught them about inclusion.

Maier’s mother, Tammy, assisted her on the stage and served as host of the show. She talked to the audience about Brittany’s premature birth, the struggles that followed and how her daughter began learning music and what she was able to accomplish through her talents.

“Inclusion is such an important thing in the world right now,” Tammy Maier said after the concert. “To be left out of something is a feeling that no one wants to experience. Brittany loves to be included in the camaraderie and the season and just even on an individual day-to-day being able to interact with people who will talk to her and enter her world. But it means a lot to me as a mother because I see how happy it makes everyone.”

Shocking gasps were heard in the audience after Tammy revealed that Brittany was born four months premature and weighed only one pound at birth. Tammy recalled how she had to rock her daughter in the palm of her hand and that her husband’s wedding ring could fit up Brittany’s arm all the way to her shoulder. Brittany permanently lost her sight at three months old and, three years later, was diagnosed with autism, which caused her to sway back and forth on stage.

The first audience request was “Jingle Bells” and the crowd accompanied her by shaking sets of keys to mimic the bells. That was followed by other holiday classics such as “Sleigh Ride”, “Jingle Bell Rock”, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”, “Frosty the Snowman” “Deck the Halls” and Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You”. In-between, Brittany performed “Let it Go” from the movie “Frozen”, Billy Joel’s “Piano Man” and Katie Perry’s “Firework.”

During the show, 10-year-old Katherine Clancy from Hewitt Elementary School, volunteered to help create a song. Clancy was instructed to press a note on the piano. Brittany recognized the sound and successfully repeated the note. Brittany did it again after hearing Clancy’s three- and five-note combinations. Brittany then used the notes to play her own piece.

“I thought it was cool because she played with only three fingers,” Clancy said. “She hummed when she played the notes.”

For the finale, all of the children in attendance gathered around Brittany on the stage and helped her sing Bill Withers’ “Lean on Me.”

Inclusive Schools Week is a nationwide celebration of the progress schools have made in giving a quality education to students who are disadvantaged due to disabilities, gender, socio-economic status, culture and language.

Zito and fellow special education educator Mariann Vogel were the Inclusive Week advisors for South Side. This year’s theme for was “Being a Hero.”

“I think Brittany encompasses that idea tenfold,” said Zito. “The courage for her to come up and do this, and her mom as well, should be applauded for what they do. It’s a model to the idea of what we’re doing here at the school.”

Staffers participated in the program by wearing superhero t-shirts and students created Superman logos describing who their heroes are.