Special Audiences and Musicians, Inc.

Our Mission

The creation of Special Audiences and Musicians Inc, a 501 c 3 non-profit organization, was inspired by Sam Baum, a young adult on the autistic spectrum and a gifted jazz pianist and composer. Since 2017 SAM has been providing musical performances in nursing homes, hospitals, assisted-living homes, and other such institutions in New York and the Tri-State area, with musicians with disabilities.

Special Audiences and Musicians, Inc. provides a much-needed service with musical performances in such institutions where audience members have a limited ability to hear live musical performances. The therapeutic, social and emotional benefits from live musical performance are well established. Utilizing musicians with disabilities, will provide valuable performance opportunities to those under-represented musicians who have much to offer in terms of artistic expression.

Not only does SAM provide professional performance opportunities but also provides opportunities to record their original compositions. To date, the Special Audiences and Musicians Jazz Ensemble has produced three outstanding albums; “The Compositions of Sam Baum,” “More Tunes by Sam Baum,” and the recently released album, “From My Shiny Imagination: Tunes by Sam Baum.”

The Special Audiences and Musicians Jazz Ensemble has supported musicians with a wide range of disabilities including; autism, arthrogyposis, polio crohn’s disease, and blindness. SAM has also engaged so-called “typical” guest artists from the jazz community. Those collaborations truly function as a two-way street. Not only do they serve as mentors but allow those mentors to witness the remarkable artistic abilities of the ensemble members. They have have limitations interms of physical or neurological abilities but their artistic abilities can be truly limitless. That is a message the world needs to hear.