Sunny Cefaratti is co-director of The Musical Autist, an autistic self-advocate, and a mentor to others. The Musical Autist’s mission is “to provide access to the arts and platforms for self-advocacy for musicians of all ages and abilities on the autism spectrum.” It is a musical space where all are welcome. The program sponsors sensory friendly concerts, empowerment jam sessions and a Musical Autist troupe. Its March 2019 sensory friendly concert at the Peabody Institute was featured in the Baltimore Sun. Sunny is a member of Maryland’s DD Council, and she joined the SDAN board in 2018. She is a talented public speaker and testified for participant choice and control of services for SDAN at the Maryland General Assembly in March 2020.
Sunny was born in South Korea, completely blind, and was adopted by her family in the US at 2 years of age. She was diagnosed with autism in 2001. After graduation from Maryland School for the Blind in 2007 Sunny transitioned to a sheltered workshop, where she stayed for eight years. Sunny found her “Good Life” after meeting C.J. Shiloh, who became her support broker and her Musical Autist co-founder. Sunny leads troupe and jam sessions at the Musical Autist, performs in local nursing homes, and plays keyboard in the praise and worship band at her church. She presents publicly about autism awareness and has done vocal and piano performance at Sensory Friendly Concerts since July 2011. She is now taking a college course in entrepreneurship.
Featured in the Baltimore Sun https://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/arts/bs-fe-peabody-sensory-concert-20190325-story.html
