Five years ago, a young boy blurted out ‘Wow!’ after a concert and captured the world’s hearts

29 July 2024, 11:10 | Updated: 29 July 2024, 11:31

Orchestra seeks boy who exclaimed 'Wow' after performance of Mozart

In 2019, a young child broke the silence at the end of a concert with an awe-stricken ‘wow!’. Now, he’s the star of a children’s book.

There’s nothing quite like a child’s unbridled reaction to beautiful music.

At a now-viral classical concert five years in Boston, the Handel and Haydn (H+H) Society had just finished a spectacular performance of Mozart’s Masonic Funeral Music.

Conducted by Harry Christophers, the H+H society is one of the oldest American performing arts groups.

After a brief moment of silence, a child in the audience exclaimed, ‘Wow!’. The awe in his voice made the whole audience and ensemble erupt into laughter and applause, with the orchestra’s CEO David Snead describing it as “one of the most wonderful moments I’ve experienced in the concert hall”.

After the concert at Boston’s Symphony Hall, the orchestra began looking for the child.

Read more: Aled Jones sings sublime ‘Ave Maria’ in duet with his boy treble self

The boy’s grandfather, Stephen Mattin, got in touch and revealed that nine-year-old Ronan is a huge music fan who is “obsessed with musical instruments”.

Mattin, who took his grandson to the concert, said he ”talked about nothing else for weeks.”

Ronan didn’t mean to be disruptive, he told WGBH, explaining that his grandson is on the autism spectrum, and expresses himself in a different way to other people.

But, Mattin added, it’s a rare occurrence that Ronan vocalises his feelings.

“I can count on one hand the number of times that [he’s] spontaneously ever come out with some expression of how he’s feeling,” Mattin said.

Mattin got in touch with the orchestra after his sister-in-law saw on television that the Handel and Haydn Society was looking for the ‘wow kid’. The Society later invited the family, who lives in Kensington, New Hampshire, to meet the artistic director.

After the clip was posted on Twitter by Boston radio station WCRB, people started sharing their reactions.

Marco A. Torres-H wrote on Twitter: “I was there and was an extraordinary moment. The kid’s “Wow” was the best recognition for Mozart’s music and this wonderful orchestra.”

MaryBeth Smith added: “As a life-long music educator, THIS. IS. EVERYTHING. Beautiful child, may you continue to feel awe, wonder, and love throughout your life as you did in this moment!”

Read more: Boy who blurted out ‘Wow!’ in concert gets invited back as special guest

Mattin said he wasn’t expecting his grandson’s exclamation, but was glad the orchestra and audience were touched by it.

“You know, everybody’s different. Everybody has different ways of expressing themselves,” he said. “I think people in general, society’s becoming more tolerant or understanding of the differences between people.”

The ‘wow’, which was fortunately captured as the concert was recorded for broadcast, went viral. Among those who heard it was poet and author Todd Boss, who went on to write a children’s book inspired by the moment.

The Boy Who Said Wow, a testament to the power of the arts, is the story of a quiet child born into a noisy world, who doesn’t speak much – but when he does, it resonates for years to come.