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When Mozart Makes You Say 'Wow'

(SOUNDBITE OF HANDEL AND HAYDN SOCIETY'S PERFORMANCE OF MOZART'S "MASONIC FUNERAL MUSIC, K. 477")

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

The wow kid has been found. The Handel and Haydn Society has been trying to find a youngster who attended a performance of "Masonic Funeral Music" at Boston Symphony Hall last Sunday and expressed his exuberance at the end.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

RONAN: Wow.

(LAUGHTER)

SIMON: He's a 9-year-old boy named Ronan from Kensington, N.H. And his grandfather Stephen Mattin told WGBH the little boy loves music and trips to Boston museums. Ronan is also on the autism spectrum, his grandfather said. I can count on one hand the number of times that he spontaneously ever come out with some expression of how he's feeling, he told WGBH. The president of the Handel and Haydn Society says Ronan's wow is one of the most wonderful moments he's ever had in a concert hall. Pretty wonderful for the rest of us, too.

(SOUNDBITE OF ACADEMY OF ST MARTIN IN THE FIELDS' PERFORMANCE OF MOZART'S "MASONIC FUNERAL MUSIC, K. 477") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Scott Simon is one of America's most admired writers and broadcasters. He is the host of Weekend Edition Saturday and is one of the hosts of NPR's morning news podcast Up First. He has reported from all fifty states, five continents, and ten wars, from El Salvador to Sarajevo to Afghanistan and Iraq. His books have chronicled character and characters, in war and peace, sports and art, tragedy and comedy.