March 3, 2002

Hi friends.

Boy, do we have a lot to tell you about since our last update! Matthew has been busy traipsing around the country doing interviews and concerts. Well, mostly he has been doing local gigs, but we’ve had the occasional traveling performance.

January and February were a whirlwind of events.

On January 14th, Dave Perry from the Lowell Sun came to our house to interview Matthew. You can read the resulting article in our “Matt in the News” section.

On January 16th, we began the multi-day process of being filmed by Jeff Wodzwski, a young and talented filmmaker. Jeff is one of the cameramen who filmed Matthew for his appearance on Lifetime Television last November. Jeff tagged along with us for several days to film Matthew for a pilot of a show he and his partner are putting together. He’s a talented cameraman. I’m sure the show will succeed.

On Martin Luther King Day, January 21st, Matthew didn’t have school, but he DID have a radio interview, a television appearance, and his second “rehearsal” with his Trio. Believe it or not, the guys had never rehearsed together before January 3rd. They have a great CD and they’re scheduled to perform at The New Orleans Jazz Festival, and yet they had never rehearsed together. Well, with a slew of Matt’s new songs to learn and a new CD on the agenda, they decided it was actually time to do a rehearsal. So they did. Twice!

Here is Matthew performing live at WCAP in Lowell, MA.

And ATT Broadband Channel 3 in Lowell did a great spot on Matthew on their evening news.

And behold, the basement rehearsal! This is where the REAL jamming happens. Unbelievable music!

On Saturday, January 26th, 2002, The Matt Savage Trio performed at The Butler School in Lowell, MA. There was lots of media attention surrounding this event. Jeff there to film the concert for his show and so was a photographer from the Lowell Sun for a follow-up story. The concert was great. The guys had a lot of fun! Many thanks go to Sharda Ramlackhan (Matthew’s A.I.T. therapist) and to the town of Lowell for sponsoring this event to benefit autism foundations.

On Monday, January 28th, Matthew again did not have school because it was a Teacher Workday. So, he did a short performance at The CambridgeSchool in Weston. When he did an audience challenge at the end and someone requested John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps”, Matt played a cool version (with his own twist, of course), created a neat segway, and worked his way into “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Rimsky-Korsakov.  The kids were completely blown away and gave him a standing ovation.  Matt had lots of fun, and was a total comedian throughout the show.

On February 1st, Matthew had a long segment aired about him on National Public Radio (NPR)’s “All Things Considered”. Boston’s WGBH (89.7 FM) aired the piece on both their morning and evening commute shows. WGBH is our local NPR station. Margo Melnicove was the producer of the story, and she did a spectacular job! If we get permission to put a transcript of the segment on our website, we will post it for your enjoyment. The actual show is too large to post.

The Matt Savage Trio performed in Cohasset, MA on February 2nd at The Red Lion Inn to benefit “A Place of Our Own”, a wonderful organization in Marshfield, MA designed to give autistic kids a place where they can play, learn, and explore in a safe, accepting environment. Cohasset is a beautiful town and the performance area was really neat. Leslie and John Hines, the owners of “A Place of Our Own” were so unbelievably kind and giving and supportive of Matt and his Trio (and me!). They even gave Matthew a huge “thank you gift bag” filled to the brim with goodies, and provided a second huge goodie bag (with a dinosaur theme) for Matt’s little sister, our paleontologist. That evening was a special night, and the Hines family was SO wonderful! We are adding a copy of The Cohasset Mariner’s article about the evening and about “A Place of Our Own” to our “In the News” section.

And on February 9th, The Trio performed in Dallas, TX to benefit The Autism Treatment Centers of Texas. “The Sterling Society”, a group of charitable individuals, sponsored the entire event. Matthew and I flew out on Thursday, the 7th, and on Friday Matthew did a live stint on “Good Day Dallas”, a local-to-Dallas morning television show. He was unbelievable. He followed all the signals, did the “teasers” and “trailers” on cue, and performed live. He wasn’t even nervous.

We then visited the Autism Treatment Centers at their old location, and Matthew performed an impromptu concert for the children there. We got a tour of the almost- finished NEW center location. The Centers will be able to accommodate twice as many children in the new space. It is wonderful.

And Friday night was another big event in Matthew’s life. He went ice-skating for the first time. Yes, we live in New England, and the first time he went ice-skating was at an ice-skating rink in the Galleria Mall in Dallas, TX. Funny, eh? Well, it was a beautiful rink, not too cold for Mom, and he had a wonderful instructor who actually stayed late (after an entire day of teaching) to give him a short lesson. She was an angel and encouraged Matthew. And he did GREAT!  Because of her, he likes ice-skating and wants to do it again!

And Saturday was pretty much spent visiting the ballroom and watching scores of volunteers decorate and transform a huge area into a magical wonderland. We spent a good part of the afternoon setting up the band’s stage area and “warming up”, and doing an ABC-TV interview and story that aired the following Monday night. Of course, there was the requisite shopping for souvenirs for Dad and Sis.

The evening was a whirlwind of events. There was a “live” auction, a “silent” auction, a Las Vegas-style casino, three awesome bands, an unbelievable dinner, secret gift boxes; the list goes on and on. In the spirit of the evening, we donated a collection of all three of Matthew’s CDs, autographed by Matthew, as a “live” auction item to benefit The Autism Treatment Centers. We figured perhaps someone might donate a hundred dollars if they were very generous. The signed collection sold for $700. Talk about a caring, generous individual!!! Thank you, Bobby.

We enjoyed an EXCELLENT meal in between the Trio’s sets, and after the Trio finished their gig, we enjoyed listening to the two other bands of the evening. They were UNBELIEVABLE! People were dancing, partying, and having an all-around great time. And every minute of our stay in Dallas was filled with people giving us Texas hospitality. We had a wonderful time and hope to return at some point! Thank you SO, SO much to both The Sterling Society and The Autism Treatment Centers. There are so many people I wish I could thank individually here, but there are just too many to list.

There is going to be an article about Matthew in a magazine entitled “Living Without” in its next issue. It is going to focus on Matthew’s Gluten Free/ Casein Free diet and how it has helped him in so many ways. Once it is published, we will post it on the website.

On February 18th, The Trio went to a studio and recorded what will be a new CD. Hopefully, it will be available by the time they perform at The New Orleans Jazz Festival in April.

And this is what we have been up to since the beginning of the year. There are several more concerts that have recently been scheduled that do not yet appear on our “concert calendar”. We'll update the dates (as well as give info on how people can get tickets) in the next few days.

Be well, all, and look forward to SPRING!