Sound and Music is for Everyone

Music has the power to unite. We're committed to amplifying voices and supporting students with disabilities through our United Sound partnership.
Watch how we're changing the narrative and creating space for everyone to be heard.

Discover how we're bringing inclusion to the world through music.

United Sound

Everyone Has the Power to Make Waves

Valuing the musical achievements of people with disabilities.

In many ways, Marcus is a typical teenager. He’s chatty, personable, a member of his school band and orchestra. But because of his disabilities, he needs an aide to help him through the school day.

That doesn’t stop him from making waves.

Thanks to a pioneering mentorship program offered by the U.S.-based organization United Sound, Marcus receives the one-on-one attention he needs, interacting regularly with high school senior and French horn player Sophie Hawkins.

“The first day I walked into the band room I was pretty nervous,” Sophie recalls. “I didn’t know if I would maybe say or do the wrong thing. But when I started talking to Marcus, even though I had never spoken to him before, he automatically greeted me as his friend.”

[Photo] Everyone Has the Power to Make Waves

About United Sound

United Sound is a school-based instrumental music club for students with intellectual or developmental disabilities. Since its inception in 2014, the organization has established over a hundred locations at high schools, junior high schools, middle schools and universities throughout the country.

“Our mission is to remove barriers and foster social change through music,” explains founder and executive director Julie Duty. “We do that through a few programs, but primarily a peer mentoring program where students without disabilities teach students with disabilities to learn instruments and play in ensembles together. Our only two rules are that the musicians are doing the teaching, not the teachers, and that there are performance opportunities every single semester.” In addition, United Sound can assist with instrument procurement for a small number of students who would not otherwise be able to participate in the program.

Duty remembers the impetus behind her decision to found the organization. “At about my third year of teaching, I had [an] ‘ah ha’ moment,” she says. “I wanted to include everyone, but I realized that I had no idea what to do. Three of the children in the 92-person school band [I was directing] had autism and two of them were non-speaking, and they really weren’t being included … and I wasn’t able to provide what they really needed.”

A Sense of Accomplishment

[Photo] Katelyn and her mom Cindy — Katelyn and her mom Cindy

Katelyn is another young student who has benefitted greatly from United Sound’s peer mentoring program. “Like most parents, you worry about are they going to make friends or are they going to be picked on?” says her mom Cindy. “Are they going to be bullied? I guess with a kid with special needs, you worry a little bit more.”

She turns to Katelyn and asks, “What was your biggest accomplishment?”

“Marching in the Rose Parade,” her daughter replies proudly.

Cindy shakes her head at the memory. “It brought tears to my eyes when they said that she was going to be able to do [that].”

Making an Authentic Contribution

[Image] “So much of the time we think that inclusion is a place, but having friends and knowing that you are part of something and you're making an authentic contribution, that's inclusion.”

“Some of our musicians play just one note, [but] at just the right time,” Julie Duty explains. “But in a band class, there’s lots of B-flats. They happen all the time. And when your mentors write you a modified part that has a bunch of rests and you’re playing B-flat when it is appropriate in the chord, that’s an authentic contribution.”

“So much of the time we think that inclusion is a place,” she continues. “[But] having friends and knowing that you are part of something and you’re making an authentic contribution, that’s inclusion.”

A Fulfilling Life

[Photo] Marcus and his dad Luis — Marcus and his dad Luis

“We’re hoping that all the things that we’ve been doing are kind of guiding Marcus so he can have a fulfilling life,” Marcus’s dad Luis says. “He can be working, he can maybe get married someday. We want all of that for him.”

Asked how that sounds, Marcus flashes a wide grin. “Good, good, good, good,” he says emphatically.

The experiences and achievements of Marcus, Katelyn and so many of their peers are proof that music is indeed the universal language — one that that transcends disability. They are the very embodiment of the idea that making music is a powerful force for learning, growth, friendship and understanding.

Yamaha is a proud Gold Sponsor of United Sound. For more information, click here.

The International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) is a UN day that is celebrated every year on 3 December. For more information, click here.

The information presented in this article is accurate as of the publication date.