Down Syndrome Family Connection to hold family concert

Down Syndrome Family Connection is sponsoring a family concert with Monroe County’s Parent Teacher Advisory Council for Special Education to celebrate World Down Syndrome Day and Disability Awareness Month.

The event will take place from 9:30 a.m. to noon March 21 at Sherwood Oaks Christian Church. The event will include an information fair featuring booths from local organizations that support people with disabilities and their families and a children’s entertainer who will make balloon animals. A concert with Leonardo Biciunas, an Indiana musician who creates therapeutic albums directed at children with special needs, will begin at 10:30 a.m.

Biciunas, 41, said he has been a musician since he can remember. He started off with rock and roll and then moved to more acoustic pieces, but it was not until later when he realized what he really wanted to do. Biciunas said his 20-year-old brother Mario, who has Down Syndrome, influenced his music.

“When I started recording, I just saw how much he responded and that it was good for him,” Biciunas said. “Sometimes things are right in front of your face, and you don’t see them.”

From then on, Biciunas began creating music directly for special-needs children. His recently released album “Makin’ Waves” focuses on positive encouragement and messages of hope for the children and their parents or caretakers. He said the music makes the children feel empowered and helps them communicate.

“Everyone likes music, no matter who they are,” Biciunas said. “It’s a universal language, and I’m trying to make it even more universal. That’s my goal.”

While Biciunas’ musical mostly focus on encouraging kids to express themselves, it also helps educate the public on disabilities and special-needs. He said he likes the audience to be a part of the act and see how empowered and capable the kids really can be. But the one thing he’s learned is that in reality, everyone is the same.

“We all have the same hopes and dreams,” Biciunas said. “We all want the same things: to be loved and appreciated. We all have something to give to the world. That’s the main thing.”